Immune Cell Promotion of Metastasis

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2015 Jan 24

PMID 25614318

Citations 642

Authors

Takanori Kitamura

Bin-Zhi Qian

Jeffrey W Pollard

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Metastatic disease is the major cause of death from cancer, and immunotherapy and chemotherapy have had limited success in reversing its progression. Data from mouse models suggest that the recruitment of immunosuppressive cells to tumours protects metastatic cancer cells from surveillance by killer cells, which nullifies the effects of immunotherapy and thus establishes metastasis. Furthermore, in most cases, tumour-infiltrating immune cells differentiate into cells that promote each step of the metastatic cascade and thus are novel targets for therapy. In this Review, we describe how tumour-infiltrating immune cells contribute to the metastatic cascade and we discuss potential therapeutic strategies to target these cells.

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