Fig. 1

The different types of CTCs and extra vesicles in colorectal cancer patient blood circulation. a tumor mass released circulating tumor cells to the blood circulation which intravasate to the blood vessel and via systematic transportation can extravasate and establish a colony in the secondary metastatic body such as liver and lung. CTCs can move in single or cluster ones that are homotypic or can accompany fibroblast, endothelial, platelets and macrophages as heterotypic cells. b Extracellular vesicles also can be shed from tumor mass into the next microenvironment that consists of tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs), exosome, microvesicles and apoptotic vesicles that are different from each other in size. These vesicles can be received via fusion, receptor-ligand interaction, and endocytosis by their selective target