Abstract

The immune cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME) play important roles in tumorigenesis. It has been known that these tumor associated immune cells may possess tumor-antagonizing or tumor-promoting functions. Although the tumor-antagonizing immune cells within TME tend to target and kill the cancer cells in the early stage of tumorigenesis, the cancer cells seems to eventually escape from immune surveillance and even inhibit the cytotoxic function of tumor-antagonizing immune cells through a variety of mechanisms. The immune evasion capability, as a new hallmark of cancer, accidently provides opportunities for new strategies of cancer therapy, namely harnessing the immune cells to battle the cancer cells. Recently, the administrations of immune checkpoint modulators (represented by anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD antibodies) and adoptive immune cells (represented by CAR-T) have exhibited unexpected antitumor effect in multiple types of cancer, bringing a new era for cancer therapy. Here, we review the biological functions of immune cells within TME and their roles in cancer immunotherapy, and discuss the perspectives of the basic studies for improving the effectiveness of the clinical use.

Keywords

Immune systemTumor microenvironmentImmunotherapyCancer immunotherapyCancer cellCancerCarcinogenesisCytotoxic T cellCancer researchBiologyImmunologyImmune checkpointAdoptive cell transferT cellIn vitro

MeSH Terms

Antineoplastic AgentsImmunologicalCTLA-4 AntigenCancer VaccinesClinical Trials as TopicHumansImmunityCellularImmunotherapyAdoptiveNeoplasmsProgrammed Cell Death 1 ReceptorReceptorsChimeric AntigenTreatment OutcomeTumor Microenvironment

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Publication Info

Year
2019
Type
review
Volume
470
Pages
126-133
Citations
1463
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Lei Xu, Yu Lei, Jinke Li et al. (2019). Immune cells within the tumor microenvironment: Biological functions and roles in cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Letters , 470 , 126-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2019.11.009

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/j.canlet.2019.11.009
PMID
31730903

Data Quality

Data completeness: 81%