Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Chin Med J (Engl). 2012 Sep;125(18):3305-11.
Special emphasis about cancer metastasis was concentrated on tumor cells themselves, and we usually considered the ability of migration and invasion was the final decider. Recently, bewaring of tumor microenvironment is a fundamental determinant in metastasis has become the most outstanding breakthrough. Considerable "microbes" in the microenvironment are closely linked with tumor metastatic behaviors, and the major proportion of them is tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Actually, TAMs conserve immediate "cross-talk" with cancer cells throughout tumor development. It is generally accepted that TAMs have mostly pro-tumoral functions and play an important role in several stages of tumor progression. This progression involves a series of events that leads from the primary site to the metastatic site, including tumor cell growth, angiogenesis, migration, invasion, intravasation and finally extravasation at distant site where the process begins again (metastasis). Thereby, TAMs has attracted substantial attentions in recent years and could become a promising therapeutic strategy. In this review, we focus on the multi-functions of TAMs in cancer and certain drugs targeting TAMs for cancer treatment those are under experimental research procedures or have even been entered human clinical tests.
特别强调癌症转移集中在肿瘤细胞本身，我们通常认为迁移和侵袭的能力是最终的决定因素。最近，警惕肿瘤微环境是转移的基本决定因素，已成为最显著的突破。微环境中相当多的“微生物”与肿瘤转移行为密切相关，其中大部分是肿瘤相关巨噬细胞（TAMs）。实际上，TAMs 在肿瘤发展过程中与癌细胞保持着直接的“交流”。人们普遍认为，TAMs 主要具有促肿瘤功能，并在肿瘤进展的几个阶段发挥重要作用。这种进展涉及一系列事件，从原发性肿瘤转移到转移性肿瘤，包括肿瘤细胞生长、血管生成、迁移、侵袭、血管内渗和最终在远处转移部位外渗，在这个过程中又重新开始（转移）。因此，TAMs 近年来引起了广泛关注，并可能成为一种有前途的治疗策略。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了 TAMs 在癌症中的多种功能，以及针对 TAMs 的某些药物在癌症治疗中的应用，这些药物正在进行实验研究或已经进入人体临床试验。
