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  • Between Bedside and Bench
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A double agent in cancer: Stopping macrophages wounds tumors

Nature Medicine volume 16, pages 863–864 (2010)Cite this article

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Macrophage invasion of tumors is widely accepted as a key component of the natural history of a tumor. There is a plethora of macrophage inflammatory and immunosuppressive activities that affect tumorigenesis, which presents new opportunities for manipulating immunity along with conventional strategies, such as chemotherapy and irradiation. Ahn et al.1 have recently provided evidence that macrophages play a decisive part in tumor recovery after irradiation. In their model, suppression of macrophage migration after irradiation with antibodies against CD11b, an integrin expressed on most macrophages, caused a favorable outcome, suggesting that the use of the already humanized and approved antibodies might be quickly translated to adjuvant therapy for solid tumors.

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Figure 1: Blockade of macrophage recruitment inhibits tumor recovery.

Katie Vicari

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joseph E. Qualls and Peter J. Murray are in the Departments of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.,

    Joseph E Qualls & Peter J Murray

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  1. Joseph E Qualls
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  2. Peter J Murray
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Correspondence to Peter J Murray.

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Qualls, J., Murray, P. A double agent in cancer: Stopping macrophages wounds tumors. Nat Med 16, 863–864 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0810-863

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