Cancer Stem Cells: The Seeds of Metastasis?

Proposed mechanism for the metastasis of breast cancer cells. Cells leaving a localized tumor undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) (indicated by the arrow) and acquire the characteristics of cancer stem cells thereby obtaining the ability to establish distant metastases, for example lung metastases. Epithelial cells are shown in pink, cancer stem cells are depicted in purple.