Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

TUMOR IMMUNOLOGY

Stepwise immune alterations in multiple myeloma progression

Nature Cancer volume 1, pages 477–479 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Studies of the tumor microenvironment have provided fundamental insights into cancer progression. A new study now delineates the dynamics of immune-cell alterations at the single-cell level and across stages of multiple myeloma, elucidating the microenvironmental changes involved in the precursor states of the disease.

Cancer immunotherapies have emerged as an important pillar of cancer treatment. As research continues to elucidate the complexity of the relevant immune responses and the tumor microenvironment (TME), the interplay between these areas may hold the key to identifying and prioritizing therapeutic approaches with wider clinical benefit. In recent years, single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies have become a powerful tool for understanding the complex patterns of the TME in various types of cancer1, revealing cell types or functional states that are dominant in tumor samples in unprecedented detail. However, a lot remains to be learned about how the TME is established and the intrinsic or extrinsic factors that influence its maintenance and its impact on tumor progression. The hematopoietic system is a model that has been studied extensively for tumor clonality and evolution2, which has provided opportunities for examining immune alterations during tumor progression and thus understanding the TME-establishment process. In the current issue of Nature Cancer, Zavidij et al. report their use of scRNA-seq to systematically characterize the immune alterations that occur at the cellular level during the progression of multiple myeloma (MM)3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Immune alterations during the progression of MM.

References

  1. Papalexi, E. & Satija, R. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 18, 35–45 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bernards, R. et al. Nat. Cancer 1, 12–17 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Zavidij, O. et al. Nat. Cancer https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-020-0053-3 (2020).

  4. Rajkumar, S. V. Am. J. Hematol. 91, 719–734 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Dhodapkar, M. V. Blood 128, 2599–2606 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ledergor, G. et al. Nat. Med. 24, 1867–1876 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Pessoa de Magalhães, R. J. et al. Haematologica 98, 79–86 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhang, L. et al. Nature 564, 268–272 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gabrilovich, D. I., Ostrand-Rosenberg, S. & Bronte, V. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 12, 253–268 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Puram, S. V. et al. Cell 171, 1611–1624.e1624 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Zhang, Q. et al. Cell 179, 829–845.e820 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Browaeys, R., Saelens, W. & Saeys, Y. Nat. Methods 17, 159–162 (2020).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Vento-Tormo, R. et al. Nature 563, 347–353 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mascaux, C. et al. Nature 571, 570–575 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Qiming Zhang & Zemin Zhang

Authors
  1. Qiming Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zemin Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zemin Zhang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Z.Z. is a founder of Analytical BioSciences, received research grants from Amgen, Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim, and is a consultant for InnoCare Pharma.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Q., Zhang, Z. Stepwise immune alterations in multiple myeloma progression. Nat Cancer 1, 477–479 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-020-0063-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-020-0063-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer