1. Tumor-associated fibrosis as a regulator of tumor immunity and response to immunotherapy
- Author
-
David G. DeNardo, Hong Jiang, and Samarth Hegde
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Cancer Research ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Immunology ,Inflammation ,Biology ,Article ,Extracellular matrix ,03 medical and health sciences ,Fibrosis ,Immunity ,Neoplasms ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,Pancreas ,Tumor microenvironment ,Immunotherapy ,Fibroblasts ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,medicine.disease ,Extracellular Matrix ,030104 developmental biology ,Oncology ,Tumor Escape ,Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ,Tumor progression ,medicine.symptom - Abstract
Tumor-associated fibrosis is characterized by unchecked pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory signaling. The components of fibrosis including significant numbers of cancer-associated fibroblasts, dense collagen deposition, and extracellular matrix stiffness, are well appreciated regulators of tumor progression but may also be critical regulators of immune surveillance. While this suggests that the efficacy of immunotherapy may be limited in highly fibrotic cancers like pancreas, it also suggests a therapeutic opportunity to target fibrosis in these tumor types to reawaken anti-tumor immunity. This review discusses the mechanisms by which fibrosis might subvert tumor immunity and how to overcome these mechanisms.
- Published
- 2017