Epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an orchestrated series of events in which cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions are altered to release epithelial cells from the surrounding tissue, the cytoskeleton is reorganized to confer the ability to move through a three-
Background ::: Spontaneously metastatic xenograft models of cancer are infrequent and the few that exist are resource intensive. In xenografts, caliper measurements can be used to determine primary tumor burden and response to therapy but in metastatic disease models determination of the presence of metastatic disease, metastatic burden, and response to therapy are difficult, often requiring serial necropsy. In this study we characterized the development of visceral metastases in a patient derived xenograft model (PDXM) using in vivo imaging.