Abstract

Abstract Strategies to therapeutically target the tumor microenvironment (TME) have emerged as a promising approach for cancer treatment in recent years due to the critical roles of the TME in regulating tumor progression and modulating response to standard-of-care therapies. Here, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the most advanced TME-directed therapies, which have either been clinically approved or are currently being evaluated in trials, including immunotherapies, antiangiogenic drugs, and treatments directed against cancer-associated fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix. We also discuss some of the challenges associated with TME therapies, and future perspectives in this evolving field. Significance: This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the current therapies targeting the TME, combining a discussion of the underlying basic biology with clinical evaluation of different therapeutic approaches, and highlighting the challenges and future perspectives.

Keywords

Tumor microenvironmentMedicineClinical trialCancerCancer researchComputational biologyBioinformaticsBiologyPathologyInternal medicine

MeSH Terms

Angiogenesis InhibitorsCancer-Associated FibroblastsExtracellular MatrixHumansImmunotherapyNeoplasmsTumor Microenvironment

Affiliated Institutions

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Publication Info

Year
2021
Type
review
Volume
11
Issue
4
Pages
933-959
Citations
1482
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Leire Bejarano, Marta Joana Costa Jordão, Johanna A. Joyce (2021). Therapeutic Targeting of the Tumor Microenvironment. Cancer Discovery , 11 (4) , 933-959. https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.cd-20-1808

Identifiers

DOI
10.1158/2159-8290.cd-20-1808
PMID
33811125

Data Quality

Data completeness: 86%