Cancers, Vol. 16, Pages 1470: Targeted Therapy for Highly Desmoplastic and Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Cancers, Vol. 16, Pages 1470: Targeted Therapy for Highly Desmoplastic and Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers16081470 Authors: Olamide T. Olaoba Ming Yang Temitope I. Adelusi Tessa Maidens Eric T. Kimchi Kevin F. Staveley-OCarroll Guangfu Li Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal malignancy with a very poor prognosis. Despite advancements in treatment strategies, PDAC remains recalcitrant to therapies because patients are often diagnosed at an advanced stage. The advanced stage of PDAC is characterized by metastasis, which typically renders it unresectable by surgery or untreatable by chemotherapy. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of PDAC comprises highly proliferative myofibroblast-like cells and hosts the intense deposition of a extracellular matrix component that forms dense fibrous connective tissue, a process called the desmoplastic reaction. In desmoplastic TMEs, the incessant aberration of signaling pathways contributes to immunosuppression by suppressing antitumor immunity. This feature offers a protective barrier that impedes the targeted delivery of drugs. In addition, the efficacy of immunotherapy is compromised because of the immune cold TME of PDAC. Targeted therapy approaches towards stromal and immunosuppressive TMEs are challenging. In this review, we discuss cellular and non-cellular TME components that contain actionable targets for drug development...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research