Tumor-Associated Macrophage Its Role in Cancer Invasion and.pdfVIP

Review Article Tumor-Associated Macrophage: Its Role in Cancer Invasion and Metastasis 1 1 Jin-Yuan Shih, Ang Yuan , Jeremy J.-W. Chen, and Pan-Chyr Yang Department of Internal Medicine [J.-Y. Shih, P.-C. Yang] and Department of Emergency Medicine [A. Yuan], National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Center for Genomic Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan [J. J.-W. Chen, P.-C. Yang]; Institutes of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Biology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan [J. J.-W. Chen] Cancer metastasis is not exclusively regulated by the deregulation of metastasis- promoting or suppressing genes in cancer cells. The interaction between cancer cells and the stromal cells has been shown recently to promote cancer metastasis. The macrophages within the tumor, referring to as tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs), are the pivotal member of stromal cells. TAMs are derived from peripheral blood monocytes recruited into the tumor. Upon activated by cancer cells, the TAMs can release a vast diversity of growth factors, proteolytic enzymes, cytokines, and in- flammatory mediators. Many of these factors are key agents in cancer metastasis. The presence of extensive TAM infiltration has been shown to correlate with cancer metastasis and poor prognosis in a variety of human carcinomas. TAMs promote can- Keywords : cer metastasis