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      Tumor microenvironment complexity and therapeutic implications at a glance

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          Abstract

          The dynamic interactions of cancer cells with their microenvironment consisting of stromal cells (cellular part) and extracellular matrix (ECM) components (non-cellular) is essential to stimulate the heterogeneity of cancer cell, clonal evolution and to increase the multidrug resistance ending in cancer cell progression and metastasis. The reciprocal cell-cell/ECM interaction and tumor cell hijacking of non-malignant cells force stromal cells to lose their function and acquire new phenotypes that promote development and invasion of tumor cells. Understanding the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms governing these interactions can be used as a novel strategy to indirectly disrupt cancer cell interplay and contribute to the development of efficient and safe therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. Furthermore, the tumor-derived circulating materials can also be used as cancer diagnostic tools to precisely predict and monitor the outcome of therapy. This review evaluates such potentials in various advanced cancer models, with a focus on 3D systems as well as lab-on-chip devices.

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          Most cited references226

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          Microenvironmental regulation of tumor progression and metastasis.

          Cancers develop in complex tissue environments, which they depend on for sustained growth, invasion and metastasis. Unlike tumor cells, stromal cell types within the tumor microenvironment (TME) are genetically stable and thus represent an attractive therapeutic target with reduced risk of resistance and tumor recurrence. However, specifically disrupting the pro-tumorigenic TME is a challenging undertaking, as the TME has diverse capacities to induce both beneficial and adverse consequences for tumorigenesis. Furthermore, many studies have shown that the microenvironment is capable of normalizing tumor cells, suggesting that re-education of stromal cells, rather than targeted ablation per se, may be an effective strategy for treating cancer. Here we discuss the paradoxical roles of the TME during specific stages of cancer progression and metastasis, as well as recent therapeutic attempts to re-educate stromal cells within the TME to have anti-tumorigenic effects.
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            Tumour exosome integrins determine organotropic metastasis

            Ever since Stephen Paget’s 1889 hypothesis, metastatic organotropism has remained one of cancer’s greatest mysteries. Here we demonstrate that exosomes from mouse and human lung-, liver- and brain-tropic tumour cells fuse preferentially with resident cells at their predicted destination, namely lung fibroblasts and epithelial cells, liver Kupffer cells and brain endothelial cells. We show that tumour-derived exosomes uptaken by organ-specific cells prepare the pre-metastatic niche. Treatment with exosomes from lung-tropic models redirected the metastasis of bone-tropic tumour cells. Exosome proteomics revealed distinct integrin expression patterns, in which the exosomal integrins α6β4 and α6β1 were associated with lung metastasis, while exosomal integrin αvβ5 was linked to liver metastasis. Targeting the integrins α6β4 and αvβ5 decreased exosome uptake, as well as lung and liver metastasis, respectively. We demonstrate that exosome integrin uptake by resident cells activates Src phosphorylation and pro-inflammatory S100 gene expression. Finally, our clinical data indicate that exosomal integrins could be used to predict organ-specific metastasis.
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              Tumour-associated macrophages as treatment targets in oncology

              Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) are key drivers of tumour-promoting inflammation and cancer progression, and are important determinants of responsiveness to a range of therapies. Herein, the authors summarize the roles of TAMs in cancer, and discuss the potential of TAM-targeted therapeutic strategies to complement and synergize with other anticancer treatments.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Cell Communication and Signaling
                Cell Commun Signal
                Springer Science and Business Media LLC
                1478-811X
                December 2020
                April 07 2020
                December 2020
                : 18
                : 1
                Article
                10.1186/s12964-020-0530-4
                7195b2cb-5acd-4934-9f1e-59530c40e8e9
                © 2020

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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