Fig. 2
From: Cancer: a mirrored room between tumor bulk and tumor microenvironment
Hypothetical stages of primary solid tumors. Stage I: The tumor is small and has not spread to distant organs. Stage II: The tumor is larger and a pro-inflammatory TME appeared with a high accumulation of both pro-inflammatory CAFs and M1 TAMs. Stage III: high accumulation of pro-inflammatory CAFs and M1 TAMs, CSCs mainly in the edges of tumor mass start to appear. Stage IV: High appearance of CSCs in the edges of tumor mass, the molecular balance changes and promotes the generation of a regenerative-like microenvironment. This regenerative-like microenvironment prompts the accumulation of both myofibroblast-like CAFs subtype (also termed “TGFβ-responsive CAFs”) and tumor-supportive M2 TAMs polarized by TGFβ signalling. The cancer spreads to distant organs. Created with BioRender.com