Define Cancer-associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) in the Tumor Microenvironment: New Opportunities in Cancer Immunotherapy and Advances in Clinical Trials

Overview

Journal Mol Cancer

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Molecular Biology
Oncology

Date 2023 Oct 2

PMID 37784082

Authors

Hao Zhang

Xinghai Yue

Zhe Chen

Chao Liu

Wantao Wu

Nan Zhang

Zaoqu Liu

Liping Yang

Qing Jiang

Quan Cheng

Peng Luo

Guodong Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite centuries since the discovery and study of cancer, cancer is still a lethal and intractable health issue worldwide. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have gained much attention as a pivotal component of the tumor microenvironment. The versatility and sophisticated mechanisms of CAFs in facilitating cancer progression have been elucidated extensively, including promoting cancer angiogenesis and metastasis, inducing drug resistance, reshaping the extracellular matrix, and developing an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Owing to their robust tumor-promoting function, CAFs are considered a promising target for oncotherapy. However, CAFs are a highly heterogeneous group of cells. Some subpopulations exert an inhibitory role in tumor growth, which implies that CAF-targeting approaches must be more precise and individualized. This review comprehensively summarize the origin, phenotypical, and functional heterogeneity of CAFs. More importantly, we underscore advances in strategies and clinical trials to target CAF in various cancers, and we also summarize progressions of CAF in cancer immunotherapy.

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