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Shedding light on macrophage immunotherapy in lung cancer

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Abstract

The search for therapeutic options for lung cancer continues to advance, with rapid advances in the search for therapies to improve patient prognosis. At present, systemic chemotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, antiangiogenic therapy, and targeted therapy for driver gene positivity are available in the clinic. Common clinical treatments fail to achieve desired outcomes due to immunosuppression of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Tumor immune evasion is mediated by cytokines, chemokines, immune cells, and other cells such as vascular endothelial cells within the tumor immune microenvironment. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are important immune cells in the TME, inducing tumor angiogenesis, encouraging tumor cell proliferation and migration, and suppressing antitumor immune responses. Thus, TAM targeting becomes the key to lung cancer immunotherapy. This review focuses on macrophage phenotype, polarization mechanism, role in lung cancer, and advances in macrophage centric immunotherapies.

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Abbreviations

TME:

Tumor microenvironment

NSCLC:

Non-small cell lung cancer

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

TGF-β:

Transforming growth factor beta

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

PD-1:

Programmed cell death protein

PD-L1:

Programmed death ligand 1

CSF-1:

Colony-stimulating factor 1

CLL:

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia

EMT:

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition

ICB:

Immune checkpoint blockade

TAMs:

Tumor-associated macrophages

TDF:

Tumor-derived factor

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

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Funding

This work has been funded with support from Nantong Science and Technology Bureau.

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  1. Huiyun Ma, Zhouwei Zhang and Qin Hu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, China

    Huiyun Ma, Zhouwei Zhang, Qin Hu, Hongyu Chen, Gujie Wu & Qun Xue

  2. Research Central of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, China

    Youlang Zhou

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QX and YLZ provided the direction and guidance of this manuscript. HM and ZZ wrote the whole manuscript. QH, HC, and GW made significant revisions to the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Ma, H., Zhang, Z., Hu, Q. et al. Shedding light on macrophage immunotherapy in lung cancer. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 149, 8143–8152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-04740-z

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