Skip to main content
Fig. 1 | Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research

Fig. 1

From: Underlying mechanisms and drug intervention strategies for the tumour microenvironment

Fig. 1

Multiple stages of the TME in cancer progression. (I) TME in the budding stage of primary cancer: Oncogene activation leads to the conversion of normal cells to cancer cells, accompanied by the initial microenvironment formation in primary cancer sites containing fibroblasts, immune cells, vascular endothelial cells (VECs), etc. (II) TME in the progressing stage of primary cancer: inflammatory cells (producing chemokines and cytokines), neutrophils, tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs, producing carcinogenic proteases, cytokines and growth factors, and angiogenic factors), VECs, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs, producing vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF), extracellular matrix (ECM), etc. (III) Pre-metastatic niche: macrophages, platelets, mesenchymal stem cells, bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs), immune cells (producing inflammatory cytokines, growth factors and angiogenic factors), etc. (IV) Metastatic niche: myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs, producing tissue factors and anti-inflammatory cytokines), Treg cells (producing anti-inflammatory cytokines), CAFs (producing transforming growth factor-1), etc.

Back to article page