Tracking Metastasis in a Living Tumor 2
Tracking Metastasis in a Living Tumor 2
Collections: Metastasis
Submitted by Madeleine Oudin, Oliver Jonas, and Jeff Wyckoff, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
MIT Department of Biology, Koch Institute at MIT
Metastasis, the process by which cells from a primary tumor disseminate throughout the body via blood vessels and lymphatics, is responsible for 90% of deaths in cancer patients. This image depicts the process of metastasis itself in a live tumor, where tumor cells (green) have reorganized the collagen into strait aligned fibers (blue) that provide the structural support for motility, while also actively entering blood vessels (red), ultimately leading to the formation of metastases in other organs.