Liu Xuanhao, Meng Xiaoyan, Liu Zhonglong, Cao Liren, Gan Luoman, He Yue
Department of Oral Maxillofacial & Head and Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, College of Stomatology, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200011, P. R. China.
Mol Cancer. 2026 Feb 2;25(1):57. doi: 10.1186/s12943-026-02585-x.
Lymph node metastasis (LNM) represents a distinctive stage in cancer progression, exerting a profound impact on patient prognosis. Accumulating studies have unveiled that tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) play a pivotal role in immunotherapy, functioning as an armory for anti-tumor immunity. Concurrently, LNM itself accelerates systemic metastatic progression, exacerbates systemic immunosuppression, and in turn fuels tumor progression. Recent advancements in single-cell sequencing technology have furnished insights into the mechanisms of LNM at single-cell resolution, unraveling the process of LNM in tumor cells and accompanying microenvironmental alterations from the perspectives of cellular heterogeneity, intercellular communication, and cellular evolutionary trajectories. Furthermore, single-cell sequencing studies have underscored the critical role of TDLNs in immunotherapy and their corresponding adaptive modifications. This article reviews the LNM microenvironment and immunosuppressive mechanisms revealed by single-cell sequencing technology, summarizes the novel targets for LNM and the current status of LNM-related immunotherapy research, and outlines the current challenges and future development directions from both technological and research content perspectives.
淋巴结转移（LNM）是癌症进展中的一个独特阶段，对患者预后有着深远影响。越来越多的研究表明，肿瘤引流淋巴结（TDLN）在免疫治疗中起着关键作用，充当抗肿瘤免疫的“军械库”。同时，LNM本身会加速全身转移进程，加剧全身免疫抑制，进而推动肿瘤进展。单细胞测序技术的最新进展为在单细胞分辨率下了解LNM的机制提供了见解，从细胞异质性、细胞间通讯和细胞进化轨迹的角度揭示了肿瘤细胞中LNM的过程以及伴随的微环境变化。此外，单细胞测序研究强调了TDLN在免疫治疗中的关键作用及其相应的适应性改变。本文综述了单细胞测序技术揭示的LNM微环境和免疫抑制机制，总结了LNM的新靶点以及LNM相关免疫治疗研究的现状，并从技术和研究内容两个角度概述了当前面临的挑战和未来的发展方向。
