The Amazing Power of Cancer Cells to Recapitulate Extraembryonic Functions: The Cuckoo's Tricks

Figure 3

Successive and overlapped stages of tumorigenesis. Genetic and epigenetic factors stimulate the formation of a cancer stem cell that invades the interstitial space favored by the inflammatory interstitial-lymphatic axis, which stands out the tissue circulation of fluid and the cellular migration. The tumor cell, by means of using the natural and adaptive immune mechanisms, becomes immunotolerant, which favors the following phases of tumor development. Then, the cancer cell induces the creation of a stroma formed by a special type of granulation tissue, and this allows for the creation of a tumoral parenchyma provided with functional heterogeneity. Finally, this heterogeneous tumor mass plunders the trophic stores of the host inducing cachexia.