Taken together, these results suggest that the microenvironment co-cultures (Fig. 9) can activate EMT, as one important functional part of the synergistic crosstalk in cancer-stromal cells interaction, promoting progression and expanded metastatic patterns in the microenvironment and inhibition of this interaction by curcumin induces biochemical and functional changes towards MET, thereby sensitizing CSCs to 5-FU treatment. This evidence concerns the gene MET and cancer.