The role of macrophages in gastric cancer

Jiaqing Zhang; Can Hu; Ruolan Zhang; Jingli Xu; Yanqiang Zhang; Li Yuan; Shengjie Zhang; Siwei Pan; Mengxuan Cao; Jiangjiang Qin; Xiangdong Cheng; Zhiyuan Xu

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1282176

The role of macrophages in gastric cancer

Front Immunol. 2023 Dec 6:14:1282176. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1282176. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiaqing Zhang^#^{1

2}, Can Hu^#^{2

3

4}, Ruolan Zhang^#^{1

2}, Jingli Xu^{1

2}, Yanqiang Zhang^{2

3

4}, Li Yuan^{2

3

4}, Shengjie Zhang^{2

3

4}, Siwei Pan^{2

3

4}, Mengxuan Cao^{2

3

4}, Jiangjiang Qin^{2

3

4}, Xiangdong Cheng^{2

3

4}, Zhiyuan Xu^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Second Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
² Department of Gastric Surgery, The Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Zhejiang Cancer Hospital), Institutes of Basic Medicine and Cancer (IBMC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Prevention, Diagnosis and Therapy of Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Zhejiang Provincial Research Center for Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

As one of the deadliest cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, there has been limited improvement in long-term survival rates for gastric cancer (GC) in recent decades. The poor prognosis is attributed to difficulties in early detection, minimal opportunity for radical resection and resistance to chemotherapy and radiation. Macrophages are among the most abundant infiltrating immune cells in the GC stroma. These cells engage in crosstalk with cancer cells, adipocytes and other stromal cells to regulate metabolic, inflammatory and immune status, generating an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME) and ultimately promoting tumour initiation and progression. In this review, we summarise recent advances in our understanding of the origin of macrophages and their types and polarisation in cancer and provide an overview of the role of macrophages in GC carcinogenesis and development and their interaction with the GC immune microenvironment and flora. In addition, we explore the role of macrophages in preclinical and clinical trials on drug resistance and in treatment of GC to assess their potential therapeutic value in this disease.

Keywords: bacteriophage; gastric cancer; immunotherapy; tumour immune microenvironment; tumour-associated macrophages.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Macrophages
Stomach Neoplasms*
Stromal Cells / pathology
Tumor Microenvironment

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFA0910100), Zhejiang Provincial Research Center for Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer (JBZX-202006), Medical Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (WKJ-ZJ-2202, WKJ-ZJ-2104), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82074245, 81973634, 81903842), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LR21H280001), Science and Technology Projects of Zhejiang Province (2019C03049), and Program of Zhejiang Provincial TCM Sci-tech Plan (2018ZY006, 2020ZZ005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81502603), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (TGY23H160038), and the Medicine and Health Science Fund of Zhejiang Province (2023KY073).