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Review
. 2024 Aug 23;10(17):e36839.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36839. eCollection 2024 Sep 15.

Tumor-associated macrophages within the immunological milieu: An emerging focal point for therapeutic intervention

Yanchi Shao  1 , Song Han  2 , Zhenxin Hou  1 , Chen Yang  1 , Yanbin Zhao  1
Affiliations
Review

Tumor-associated macrophages within the immunological milieu: An emerging focal point for therapeutic intervention

Yanchi Shao et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Tumor-associated macrophages play an important role in the tumor immune microenvironment, and regulating the function of tumor-associated macrophages has important therapeutic potential in tumor therapy. Mature macrophages could migrate to the tumor microenvironment, influencing multiple factors such as tumor cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis, extracellular matrix remodeling, immune suppression, and drug resistance. As a major component of the tumor microenvironment, tumor-associated macrophages crosstalk with other immune cells. Currently, tumor-associated macrophages have garnered considerable attention in tumor therapy, broadening the spectrum of drug selection to some extent, thereby aiding in mitigating the prevailing clinical drug resistance dilemma. This article summarizes the recent advances in tumor-associated macrophages concerning immunology, drug targeting mechanisms for tumor-associated macrophages treatment, new developments, and existing challenges, offering insights for future therapeutic approaches. In addition, this paper summarized the impact of tumor-associated macrophages on current clinical therapies, discussed the advantages and disadvantages of targeted tumor-associated macrophages therapy compared with existing tumor therapies, and predicted and discussed the future role of targeted tumor-associated macrophages therapy and the issues that need to be focused on.

Keywords: Immunity; TAMs; Targeted therapy; Tumor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The interplay between TAMs and immune cells within the TME involves intricate crosstalk, which significantly influences the tumor's immune landscape and therapeutic outcomes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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