Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 8A Biomedical Grove, #04-06 Immunos, Biopolis, Singapore.
Immunol Res. 2012 Sep;53(1-3):229-34. doi: 10.1007/s12026-012-8288-4.
The immune system has multiple, complex, and sometimes opposing roles during cancer progression. While immune-compromised individuals have a higher incidence of cancers, inflammation is also associated with increased risk of disease progression. It is becoming apparent that simple measures of immune responses in the blood are of limited use in cancer. Instead, the importance of the exact identity and functional characteristics of tumor-infiltrating immune cells is increasingly recognized. This realization has led to recent studies that have revealed a critical role for chemokine expression in the tumor microenvironment and suggested a therapeutic potential of manipulating intratumoral expression of chemokines to alter the local immune milieu.
免疫系统在癌症进展过程中具有多种复杂且有时相互矛盾的作用。虽然免疫功能低下的个体癌症发病率较高，但炎症也与疾病进展风险增加有关。现在越来越明显的是，血液中免疫反应的简单测量在癌症中的用途有限。相反，肿瘤浸润免疫细胞的确切身份和功能特征的重要性越来越受到重视。这种认识导致了最近的研究，这些研究揭示了趋化因子表达在肿瘤微环境中的关键作用，并表明操纵趋化因子在肿瘤内的表达以改变局部免疫微环境具有治疗潜力。
