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The role of macrophages during breast cancer development and response to chemotherapy

Clinical and Translational Oncology volume 22, pages 1938–1951 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Macrophages play an important role in the immune system as a key host defense against pathogens. Non-polarized macrophages can differentiate into pro-inflammatory classical pathway-activated macrophages or anti-inflammatory alternative pathway-activated macrophages, both of which play central roles in breast cancer growth and progression in a process called polarization of macrophages. Classical pathway-activated and alternative pathway-activated macrophages can transform into each other and their transformational properties and orientation are determined by cytokines in the tumor microenvironment. Tumor-associated macrophages display many functions, such as tissue reforming, participating in inflammation and tumor growth in breast cancer progression. Some cytokines, such as interleukins and transcriptional activators, reside in the tumor microenvironment and influence tumor-associated macrophages. Chemotherapy is a common treatment for breast cancer and macrophages play an important role in mammary tumor cell migration, cancer invasion, and angiogenesis. This review summarizes the activities of tumor-associated macrophages in the mammary tumor, chemotherapeutic processes and some potential strategies for breast cancer therapy.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the NCBI PubMed repository.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Project (Grant number 20170623033TC and 20170623035TC to YD). This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81603460, to Q.L.).

Author information

Author notes

    Affiliations

    1. Department of Laboratory Animals, College of Animal Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, 130062, China

      S. Tao, X. Guan, J. Wei, B. Yuan, S. He, D. Zhao, J. Zhang & Y. Ding

    2. The Second Clinical School of Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine-Zhuhai Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, Guangdong, China

      Z. Zhao & Q. Liu

    3. College of Animal Science and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, 130118, China

      X. Zhang

    4. Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

      Q. Liu

    5. The 2nd Clinical School of Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, China

      Z. Zhao & Q. Liu

    6. The 85th Hospital of CPLA, Shanghai, 200040, China

      Z. Zhao

    7. Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine-Zhuhai Hospital, Zhuhai, 519015, China

      Z. Zhao & Q. Liu

    Authors
    1. S. Tao
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    2. Z. Zhao
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    3. X. Zhang
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    4. X. Guan
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    5. J. Wei
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    6. B. Yuan
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    7. S. He
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    8. D. Zhao
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    9. J. Zhang
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    10. Q. Liu
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    11. Y. Ding
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    Contributions

    The study was designed by QL. The initial search, literature organization, and manuscript writing were performed by ST, ZZ, XZ, XG, JW, SH, and DZ. Critical comments and typesetting corrections on the final version were made by JZ, YD, and QL. The manuscript was finalized by YD and QL. All authors have read and revised the manuscript critically.

    Corresponding authors

    Correspondence to J. Zhang, Q. Liu or Y. Ding.

    Ethics declarations

    Conflict of interest

    The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

    Ethics approval and consent to participate

    Not applicable.

    Informed consent

    Not applicable.

    Research involving human and animal rights

    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

    Additional information

    Publisher's Note

    Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

    S. Tao and Z. Zhao have contributed equally to this work.

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    Cite this article

    Tao, S., Zhao, Z., Zhang, X. et al. The role of macrophages during breast cancer development and response to chemotherapy. Clin Transl Oncol 22, 1938–1951 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-020-02348-0

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-020-02348-0

    Keywords

    • Breast cancer
    • Tumor-associated macrophage
    • Macrophage polarization
    • Tumor-associated macrophages
    • Chemotherapy
    • Potential strategies