The evolving tumor microenvironment: From cancer initiation to metastatic outgrowth.

By K. D. de Visser, J. Joyce. Cancer Cell, 2023

3,322 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cancers represent complex ecosystems comprising tumor cells and a multitude of non-cancerous cells, embedded in an altered extracellular matrix. The tumor microenvironment (TME) includes diverse immune cell types, cancer-associated fibroblasts, endothelial cells, pericytes, and various additional tissue-resident cell types. These host cells were once considered bystanders of tumorigenesis but are now known to play critical roles in the pathogenesis of cancer. The cellular composition and functional state of the TME can differ extensively depending on the organ in which the tumor arises, the intrinsic features of cancer cells, the tumor stage, and patient characteristics. Here, we review the importance of the TME in each stage of cancer progression, from tumor initiation, progression, invasion, and intravasation to metastatic dissemination and outgrowth. Understanding the complex interplay between tumor cell-intrinsic, cell-extrinsic, and systemic mediators of disease progression is critical for the rational development of effective anti-cancer treatments.

Subfields: Immunology, Oncology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/76ca80f27736eac06bfe5687295144f06fd866dc

Citations in the corpus

• Impact of T Cell Exhaustion and Stroma Senescence on Tumor Cell Biology and Clinical Outcome of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (2024, unknown): “Peritumoral stroma primarily consists of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and an extracellular matrix (ECM) and was shown to have a relevant role in cancer progression through cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions in different cancer types [23].”
• Single-cell landscape of peripheral and tumor-infiltrating immune cells in HPV-negative HNSCC (2025, unknown): “44 While our analyses observed some differences in immune cell enrichment, we next wanted to explore distinct molecular signatures of nodal involvement and pathologic stage (Figures 2, S5).”