“Cutting the Support” to Improve Treatment Efficacy in Thyroid Cancer by Targeting Tumor Microenvironment

Abstract

Tumor microenvironment (TME) is an essential component that provides optimal conditions for cancer cells to thrive, escape immune surveillance, invade, and metastasize. In addition to supporting cancer growth and progression, TME plays a critical role in cancer cell survival and therapeutic resistance. Thus, it is not surprising that the treatments that are effective in in vitro models lacking TME often fail to show efficacy in vivo. It is believed that oncogenic mutations and other pathogenic dysregulations cause cancer initiation. To survive in the new environment, the cancer cells recruit and transform noncancer TME cells by various cytokines, chemokines, and vesicles containing signaling proteins and alter the TME to...