Fig. 4
From: Tumor-stromal crosstalk in pancreatic cancer and tissue fibrosis
Role of EMT in pancreatic cancer metastasis. During EMT, tumorous epithelial cells undergo various bio-physiological modifications whereby lose their polarity, detach from the basement membrane and invade the surrounding tissue. The angiogenic switch and tumor vasculature facilitate the intravasation of metastatic tumor cells. The cells that survive in circulation extravasate into distant organ and undergo mesenchymal to epithelial transition to form tumor colonization