Targeting the tumour stroma to improve cancer therapy
By K. Valkenburg, A. E. de Groot, K. Pienta. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 2018
935 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Cancers are not composed merely of cancer cells alone; instead, they are complex ‘ecosystems’ comprising many different cell types and noncellular factors. The tumour stroma is a critical component of the tumour microenvironment, where it has crucial roles in tumour initiation, progression, and metastasis. Most anticancer therapies target cancer cells specifically, but the tumour stroma can promote the resistance of cancer cells to such therapies, eventually resulting in fatal disease. Therefore, novel treatment strategies should combine anticancer and antistromal agents. Herein, we provide an overview of the advances in understanding the complex cancer cell–tumour stroma interactions and discuss how this knowledge can result in more effective therapeutic strategies, which might ultimately improve patient outcomes.Key pointsTumours comprise cancer cells as well as a stromal compartment with cellular and noncellular components.The tumour stroma has critical roles in cancer development, progression, and metastasis.Typically, anticancer therapies predominantly target cancer cells, and their effect on the tumour stroma is not taken into account.The tumour stroma responds to anticancer therapies by inducing therapeutic resistance, which can ultimately lead to fatal disease.Anticancer therapies should target both cancer cells and the stromal compartment to be effective and result in improved patient outcomes.The tumour stroma is a component of the tumour microenvironment and has crucial roles in tumour initiation, progression, and metastasis. Most anticancer therapies target cancer cells specifically, but the tumour stroma can promote resistance to such therapies. Herein, the authors provide an overview of the complex cancer cell–tumour stroma interactions and discuss how novel treatment strategies should combine anticancer and antistromal agents.
Subfields: Biotechnology, Cancer Research, Oncology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7badf457584e7d60721ef1fe075f391f82af182d
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In Cancer Research
Citations in the corpus
- Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in the immunotherapy era (2020, background): “Physiologically, in most nonmalignant tissues, stromal cells are suppressive, regulating the proliferation and migration of differentiated epithelial cells, as well as maintaining the structure and size of organs.(129) Immunologically active cytokines, comprising growth factors, chemokines, angiogen”