Tumor battlefield within inflamed, excluded or desert immune phenotypes: the mechanisms and strategies
- Exp Hematol Oncol. 2024 Aug 6;13(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s40164-024-00543-1.
- 1. Department of Breast Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310000, China.
- 2. Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immune Therapy of Zhejiang Province, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310000, China.
- 3. Department of Pathology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310000, China.
- 4. General Surgery, Cancer Center, Department of Breast Surgery, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital (Affiliated People's Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou, 310000, China. [email protected].
- 5. Department of Breast Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310000, China. [email protected].
- 6. Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immune Therapy of Zhejiang Province, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310000, China. [email protected].
- # Contributed equally.
The tumor microenvironment demonstrates great immunophenotypic heterogeneity, which has been leveraged in traditional immune-hot/cold tumor categorization based on the abundance of intra-tumoral immune cells. By incorporating the spatial immune contexture, the tumor immunophenotype was further elaborated into immune-inflamed, immune-excluded, and immune-desert. However, the mechanisms underlying these different immune phenotypes are yet to be comprehensively elucidated. In this review, we discuss how tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment interact collectively to shape the immune landscape from the perspectives of tumor cells, immune cells, the extracellular matrix, and Cancer metabolism, and we summarize potential therapeutic options according to distinct immunophenotypes for personalized precision medicine.