Transforming cancer cells for long-term living with cancer: An inspiring new approach

Mingjie Jiang; Dianna Gu; Furao Liu; Chenjing Lin; Ling Tian

doi:10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2023.02.03

Transforming cancer cells for long-term living with cancer: An inspiring new approach

Chin J Cancer Res. 2023 Apr 30;35(2):108-125. doi: 10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2023.02.03.

Authors

Mingjie Jiang¹, Dianna Gu², Furao Liu³, Chenjing Lin⁴, Ling Tian⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, China.
² Department of Chemotherapy, the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Diseases, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 201620, China.
⁴ Department of Central Laboratory, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China.

PMID: 37180837
PMCID: PMC10167610
DOI: 10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2023.02.03

Abstract

Cancer is the leading cause of human death and imposes a huge health burden. Currently, no matter what advanced therapeutic modalities or technologies are applied, it is still peculiarly rare for most cancers to be radically cured whereas therapy resistance and tumor recurrence are ever so common. The long-standing cytotoxic therapy is hard to achieve long-term tumor control, and produces side-effects or even promotes cancer progression. With growing understandings of tumor biology, we came to realize that it is possible to transform but not kill cancer cells to achieve long-term living with cancer, and directly altering cancer cells is a promising way. Remarkably, tissue microenvironment is involved in the fate determination of cancer cells. Of note, leveraging cell competition to combat malignant or therapy-resistant cells shows some therapeutic potentials. Furthermore, modulating tumor microenvironment to restore a normal state might help to transform cancer cells. Especially, reprogramming cancer-associated fibroblasts, and tumor-associated macrophages, or normalization of tumor vessel, tumor immune microenvironment, and tumor extracellular matrix or their combinations, et al., revealed some long-term therapeutic benefits. Despite the massive challenges ahead, it would be possible to transform cancer cells for long-term cancer control and living with cancer longevously. The related basic researches and corresponding therapeutic strategies are also ongoing.

Keywords: Cancer treatment; cancer biology; cancer microenvironment; cell competition; cell reprogramming; microenvironment normalization.