Dynamism, Sensitivity, and Consequences of Mesenchymal and Stem-Like Phenotype of Cancer Cells

Figure 2

E/M hybrid phenotype. E/M hybrid phenotype of tumor cells represents an ideal window for stemness reversion. In this state, cancer cells coexpress epithelial and mesenchymal genes and promote expression of stemness genes. This results in formation of a tumor sphere in vitro and metastatic spread in vivo. Also, a majority of circulating cancer cell (CTC) clusters coexpress epithelial and mesenchymal markers together with stem cell markers. An inhibition of EMT and/or stemness phenotype should lead to hindrance of advanced cancer.