Crosstalk between Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts and Cancer Cells
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Tumor Microenvironment".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2023) | Viewed by 7626
Special Issue Editor
Interests: molecular features of gastric cancer; deregulation of signal transduction in cancer cells; molecular mechanisms of chemoresistance; IRES-mediated transcription modulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite the progress made in recent decades, cancer therapy is still a challenging field. Research efforts that have been for a long time focused on the molecular nature of cancer cells have led to the realization that a tumor is not a closed system. Indeed, the complexity of reciprocal interactions with elements of the surrounding tumor microenvironment (TME) greatly increases the heterogeneity of tumors and promotes the malignant phenotype in every stage of the disease.
Among components of the TME, the heterogeneous population of cancer-activated fibroblasts (CAFs) plays a pivotal role, providing a constant stimulation for tumor cells and other component of the TME through cell-cell contact and the production of soluble mediators. These stromal cells are a main active component during all stages of neoplastic disease, from onset to metastasization, and are strongly recruited by cancer cells from different, heterogeneoussources. CAFs strongly contribute to the proliferative, pro-inflammatory, pro-angiogenic, pro-invasive, and pro-metastatic properties that TME exerts on cancer. Furthermore, CAFs are involved in cancer resistance to therapy, and contribute to the suppression of the antitumor immune response. The purpose of this special issue is to stimulate the presentation of scientific data revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying the crosstalk between CAFs and tumor cells. The discovery of specific function of CAF subpopulation on cancer cell properties like, among the others, cancer onset and progression to late stages of the disease, evasion from immune surveillance and resistance to chemotherapy, can be used to develop novel strategies to indirectly disrupt cancer cell interplay and contribute to the development of a CAF-based strategy for a precision therapy to be combined with conventional anticancer approaches.
Dr. Lucia Magnelli
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- CAF
- TME
- cancer
- signal transduction
- stroma
- precision medicine
