2. Academic Validation
  3. A framework for advancing our understanding of cancer-associated fibroblasts

A framework for advancing our understanding of cancer-associated fibroblasts

  • Nat Rev Cancer. 2020 Mar;20(3):174-186. doi: 10.1038/s41568-019-0238-1.
Erik Sahai 1,  Igor Astsaturov 2,  Edna Cukierman 3,  David G DeNardo 4,  Mikala Egeblad 5,  Ronald M Evans 6 7,  Douglas Fearon 5 8,  Florian R Greten 9 10,  Sunil R Hingorani 11,  Tony Hunter 12,  Richard O Hynes 13,  Rakesh K Jain 14,  Tobias Janowitz 5 15,  Claus Jorgensen 16,  Alec C Kimmelman 17,  Mikhail G Kolonin 18,  Robert G Maki 5 19 20,  R Scott Powers 21,  Ellen Puré 22,  Daniel C Ramirez 23,  Ruth Scherz-Shouval 24,  Mara H Sherman 25,  Sheila Stewart 26,  Thea D Tlsty 27 28,  David A Tuveson 5,  Fiona M Watt 29,  Valerie Weaver 30,  Ashani T Weeraratna 31,  Zena Werb 32
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK. [email protected].
  • 2 Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 3 Cancer Biology Program, Marvin & Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 4 Division of Oncology, Washington University Medical School, St Louis, MO, USA.
  • 5 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.
  • 6 Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
  • 7 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
  • 8 Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
  • 9 Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt, Germany.
  • 10 Frankfurt Cancer Institute, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
  • 11 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • 12 Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
  • 13 Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
  • 14 Edwin L Steele Laboratories, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
  • 15 Northwell Health Cancer Institute, New Hyde Park, NY, USA.
  • 16 Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, University of Manchester, Nether Alderley, UK.
  • 17 Department of Radiation Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
  • 18 Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
  • 19 Northwell Health Cancer Institute, New York, NY, USA.
  • 20 Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 21 Department of Pathology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
  • 22 Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 23 Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health System, New York, NY, USA.
  • 24 Department of Biomolecular Sciences, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
  • 25 Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
  • 26 Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Department of Medicine, ICCE Institute, Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
  • 27 UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 28 Department of Pathology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 29 Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London, UK.
  • 30 Center for Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration, Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 31 Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
  • 32 Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
PMID: 31980749 DOI: 10.1038/s41568-019-0238-1
Abstract

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a key component of the tumour microenvironment with diverse functions, including matrix deposition and remodelling, extensive reciprocal signalling interactions with Cancer cells and crosstalk with infiltrating leukocytes. As such, they are a potential target for optimizing therapeutic strategies against Cancer. However, many challenges are present in ongoing attempts to modulate CAFs for therapeutic benefit. These include limitations in our understanding of the origin of CAFs and heterogeneity in CAF function, with it being desirable to retain some antitumorigenic functions. On the basis of a meeting of experts in the field of CAF biology, we summarize in this Consensus Statement our current knowledge and present a framework for advancing our understanding of this critical cell type within the tumour microenvironment.

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