Crosstalk between cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment: new findings and future perspectives

🤖 Plain-English Summary

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a stromal cell population with cell-of-origin, phenotypic and functional heterogeneity, are the most essential components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Herein, we shed light on recent advances regarding the direct and indirect crosstalk between CAFs and infiltrating immune cells and further summarize the possible immunoinhibitory mechanisms induced by CAFs in the TME.

🔑 Key Findings

• Through multiple pathways, activated CAFs can promote tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, along with extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and even chemoresistance.
• Numerous previous studies have confirmed the critical role of the interaction between CAFs and tumor cells in tumorigenesis and development.
• However, recently, the mutual effects of CAFs and the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) have been identified as another key factor in promoting tumor progression.

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