Figure 1

Co-evolution of tumor cells and their microenvironment in cancer invasions. Both of tumor cells and their microenvironment are involved in cancer invasions. Invasion is the first observable step of cancer progression process that tumor cells cross the ECM barrier by proteolytic enzyme such as MMPs after acquiring invasive phenotypes (upper graph). In addition, tumor infiltrating macrophages and type IV collagen also play an important role in cancer invasion. In this process, cancer invasion networks capture "temporal evolution" and "spatial evolution" between tumor cells and microenvironment before mechanical macrotrack can be observed as stroma remodelling at the histological level (lower graph).