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The cancer microenvironment, or tumour microenvironment, describes the non-cancerous cells present in the tumour. These include fibroblasts, immune cells and cells that comprise the blood vessels. It also includes the proteins produced by all of the cells present in the tumour that support the growth of the cancer cells.
PARP inhibitors (PARPi) have been approved for the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (BC), however resistance and recurrence are often observed. Here, in preclinical models of BRCA1/2 wild type and homologous recombination competent BC, the authors show that C5aR1-positive tumor associated macrophages are associated with PARPi-resistance, suggesting targeting C5aR1 as a therapeutic option.
A preprint by Ben-Chetrit et al. investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate macrophage heterogeneity in solid breast cancer tumours.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Zuzana Tatarova describes the development of MIMA, an integrated analytical platform providing the quantitative information on tumour microenvironment drug responses required for effective treatment design.
In this recent study, He et al. establish that chronic stress promotes metastasis through stress-induced formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).