Cancer microenvironment articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    The lipid transporter FATP2 reprograms neutrophils to polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells by mediating the uptake of arachidonic acid and promoting the synthesis of prostaglandin E2.

    • Filippo Veglia
    • , Vladimir A. Tyurin
    •  & Dmitry I. Gabrilovich

  • Article |

    RNA sequencing data and tumour pathology observations of non-small-cell lung cancers indicate that the immune cell microenvironment exerts strong evolutionary selection pressures that shape the immune-evasion capacity of tumours.

    • Rachel Rosenthal
    • , Elizabeth Larose Cadieux
    •  & Andrew Kidd

  • Article |

    The tumour microenvironment determines which type of liver cancer develops, with transformed hepatocytes giving rise to intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or hepatocellular carcinoma depending or whether they are surrounded by cells undergoing necroptosis or apoptosis.

    • Marco Seehawer
    • , Florian Heinzmann
    •  & Lars Zender

  • Letter |

    The Ras-related GTPase RAP2 is a key intracellular signal transducer by which extracellular matrix rigidity controls mechanosensitive cellular activities through YAP and TAZ.

    • Zhipeng Meng
    • , Yunjiang Qiu
    •  & Kun-Liang Guan

  • Article |

    Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in tumour cells occurs through distinct intermediate states, associated with different metastatic potential, cellular properties, gene expression, and chromatin landscape

    • Ievgenia Pastushenko
    • , Audrey Brisebarre
    •  & Cédric Blanpain

  • Letter |

    In humans, TGFβ signalling is associated with lack of response to immunotherapy in immune-excluded tumours; in mouse models of this immune phenotype, robust tumour infiltration by T cells and tumour regression are observed only when checkpoint inhibition is combined with inhibition of TGFβ signalling.

    • Sanjeev Mariathasan
    • , Shannon J. Turley
    •  & Thomas Powles

  • Letter |

    An in vivo RNA interference screening strategy in glioblastoma enabled the identification of a host of epigenetic targets required for glioblastoma cell survival that were not identified by parallel standard screening in cell culture, including the transcription pause–release factor JMJD6, and could be a powerful tool to uncover new therapeutic targets in cancer.

    • Tyler E. Miller
    • , Brian B. Liau
    •  & Jeremy N. Rich

  • Letter |

    Wild-type Drosophila epithelial cells outcompete proto-oncogenic cells through translocation of the ligand Sas to the wild-type–tumour cell interface, where it binds the PTP10D receptor of the tumour cell, initiating pro-apoptotic signalling.

    • Masatoshi Yamamoto
    • , Shizue Ohsawa
    •  & Tatsushi Igaki

  • Letter |

    During early-stage tumour growth in Drosphila, tumour cells acquire necessary nutrients by triggering autophagy in surrounding cells in the tumour microenvironment.

    • Nadja S. Katheder
    • , Rojyar Khezri
    •  & Tor Erik Rusten

  • Article |

    A heterotypic cell interaction between astrocytes and tumour cells colonizing the brain is discovered; by establishing gap junctions, tumour cells trigger the activation of innate immune response signalling in astrocytes, which results in the secretion of factors that support growth and chemoresistance in brain metastatic cells.

    • Qing Chen
    • , Adrienne Boire
    •  & Joan Massagué

  • Article |

    Exosomes originating from lung-, liver- and brain-tropic tumour cells are preferentially incorporated by specific resident cells of the target organs, thus preparing the site for metastasis; the expression of distinct combinations of exosomal integrin proteins determines the exosomal targeting to each of the three organs, and blocking these integrins reduces organotropic exosome uptake by the target organs, thereby reducing the likelihood of organotropic metastasis.

    • Ayuko Hoshino
    • , Bruno Costa-Silva
    •  & David Lyden

  • Letter |

    Expression of the tumour suppressor PTEN in disseminated primary tumour cells is lost after tumour cells metastasize to the brain, with downregulation instigated by microRNAs from astrocytes, which are transferred from cell to cell by exosomes; these findings reveal the dynamic nature of metastatic cancer cells when adapting to a new tissue environment.

    • Lin Zhang
    • , Siyuan Zhang
    •  & Dihua Yu

  • Letter |

    Whether neutrophils exert an anti- or pro-tumorigenic function has remained controversial; now, expression of the receptor molecule MET in neutrophils is shown to be required for their ability to restrict tumour growth in several mouse cancer models, with potential implications for human cancer therapy.

    • Veronica Finisguerra
    • , Giusy Di Conza
    •  & Massimiliano Mazzone

  • Letter |

    Magnetically induced mechanical strain mimicking the pressure exerted by a growing tumour in the mouse colon is shown to activate the tumorigenic β-catenin pathway in healthy epithelia, suggesting an alternative pathway, mechanotransductive in nature, in the propagation of tumorigenesis and growth from tumour to healthy tissue.

    • María Elena Fernández-Sánchez
    • , Sandrine Barbier
    •  & Emmanuel Farge

  • Letter |

    Only a subset of patients with melanoma responds to new immunotherapeutic therapies; here, β-catenin signalling is identified as an important pathway that confers resistance to this type of approach, with implications for future treatment strategies.

    • Stefani Spranger
    • , Riyue Bao
    •  & Thomas F. Gajewski

  • Letter |

    Tumour cells respond to an effective, targeted drug treatment with BRAF, ALK or EGFR kinase inhibitors by inducing a complex network of secreted signals that promote tumour growth, dissemination and metastasis of drug-resistant cancer cell clones, and increase the survival of drug-sensitive tumour cells, potentially contributing to incomplete tumour regression.

    • Anna C. Obenauf
    • , Yilong Zou
    •  & Joan Massagué

  • Letter |

    The tumour microenvironment can influence its response to anticancer therapies; here, the enzyme FAK in endothelial cells is shown to have a role in the induction of a number of cytokines during chemotherapy or irradiation, which in turn protect tumours from DNA-damaging agents.

    • Bernardo Tavora
    • , Louise E. Reynolds
    •  & Kairbaan M. Hodivala-Dilke

  • Letter |

    Myeloproliferative neoplasms are caused by mutations in the haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) compartment, and here the authors show that the HSC niche contributes to the pathogenesis; sympathetic innervation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is reduced in the bone marrow of patients, which leads to reduced MSC numbers and increased mutant HSC expansion, and restoring sympathetic regulation of MSCs with neuroprotective/sympathomimetic drugs prevents mutant HSC expansion.

    • Lorena Arranz
    • , Abel Sánchez-Aguilera
    •  & Simón Méndez-Ferrer

  • Letter |

    A mouse model of T-cell leukaemia is used to test whether PTEN loss is required for tumour maintenance as well as initiation; although it had little effect on tumour load in haematopoietic organs, PTEN reactivation reduced the CCR9-dependent tumour dissemination to the intestine that was amplified on PTEN loss, exposing the importance of tumour microenvironment in PTEN-deficient settings.

    • Cornelius Miething
    • , Claudio Scuoppo
    •  & Scott W. Lowe

  • Outlook |

    Using a variety of creative imaging techniques, researchers are tracking the dynamic interactions of immune and cancer cells. Their results will guide drug development.

    • Katherine Bourzac

  • Letter |

    Naked mole rats seem almost entirely protected from developing cancer, and this can now, at least in part, be explained by the production of a unique high-molecular-mass form of hyaluronan, a component of the extracellular matrix; together with an increased sensitivity of naked mole-rat cells to hyaluronan signalling, this form protects its cells from oncogenic transformation.

    • Xiao Tian
    • , Jorge Azpurua
    •  & Andrei Seluanov

  • Outlook |

    In the fight against myeloma, researchers are investigating its interactions with molecular neighbours in the bone marrow.

    • Virginia Hughes

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