Mechanisms of Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer and Metastatic Organotropism: Hematogenous versus Peritoneal Spread

Figure 2

Regulation of EMT at different molecular levels: upregulation of the WNT pathway, PI3K/AKT pathway, and RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK/MAPK pathway and downregulation of the TGF-β/Smad pathway lead to the activation of EMT through downregulation of E-cadherin. E-cadherin repressors can be divided into direct and indirect repressors. EMT can also be regulated on a posttranscriptional and posttranslational level by miRNAs exerting activating and inhibiting functions. As part of tumor cell-tumor microenvironment interactions EMT can also be triggered by a variety of cytokines.