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.
The tumour mass consists not only of a heterogeneous population of cancer cells but also a variety of resident and infiltrating host cells, secreted factors and extracellular matrix proteins, collectively known as the tumour microenvironment. Tumour progression is profoundly influenced by interactions of cancer cells with their environment that ultimately determine whether the primary tumour is eradicated, metastasizes or establishes dormant micrometastases. The tumour microenvironment can also shape therapeutic responses and resistance, justifying the recent impetus to target components of the tumour microenvironment, which is best exemplified by the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the clinic.
This Collection of the most recently published articles from Nature Reviews Cancer showcases the diverse aspects of tumour microenvironment research, and we hope it will be a valuable resource to research scientists, clinicians and students interested in this field.
This Review discusses nutrient scavenging, a process by which cancer cells use macromolecules from their environment to fuel cell metabolism and growth even when nutrients are limiting.
In this Review, Di Virgilio et al. describe how extracellular ATP and P2 purinergic signalling can shape the tumour microenvironment to both promote and restrain tumour progression and outline the opportunities to harness nucleotide receptor signalling as an anticancer strategy.
In this Review, Hamidi and Ivaska discuss the contribution of integrins to the different steps of cancer progression, highlighting some of the recently identified unconventional roles of integrins and novel opportunities to target integrin signalling.
Although the aggressive underlying biology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) remains largely undefined, the tumour microenvironment (TME) has emerged as a key contributor. This Review discusses intrinsic characteristics of IBC, extrinsic features of the TME and intrinsic–extrinsic communication.
This Review describes tumour cell-intrinsic oncogenic pathways implicated in tumour immune evasion and highlights the potential for targeting these pathways to overcome resistance to immunotherapy in various cancer types.
This Review by Dewhirst and Secomb describes the current understanding of drug transport to tumour cells and the progress that has been made in developing methods to enhance drug delivery.
The adenosinergic pathway is a major immunosuppressive mechanism in the tumour microenvironment. In this Review, Vijayanet al. discuss how targeting components involved in the generation and downstream signalling of extracellular adenosine represents an attractive novel cancer therapy.
This Review by Mitchellet al. summarizes how engineering and the physical sciences have advanced oncology by highlighting four important areas: the physical microenvironment of the tumour, drug delivery, cellular and molecular imaging, and microfluidics and microfabrication.
This Review by Corbet and Feron summarizes recent data showing that tumour acidosis influences cancer metabolism and contributes to cancer progression; it also highlights advances in therapeutic modalities aimed at either inhibiting or exploiting tumour acidification.
This Review discusses the extrinsic regulation of angiogenesis by the tumour microenvironment, highlighting potential vulnerabilities that could be targeted to improve the applicability and reach of anti-angiogenic cancer therapies.
Insights into the effects of targeted therapies, conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy, on the induction of antitumour immunity will help to advance the design of combination strategies that increase the rate of complete and durable clinical responses in patients.
The human microbiota influences a whole range of physiological functions. In this Review, Roy and Trinchieri discuss our current understanding of how the gut microbiota modulates responses to cancer therapy as well as mediating susceptibility to toxic side effects.