Abstract
Breast cancer evolves thanks to a dense and close interaction with the surrounding tumor microenvironment (TME). Fibroblasts, leukocytes, blood and lymphatic endothelial cells and extracellular matrix are the constituents of this entity, and they synergistically play a pivotal role in all of the stages of breast cancer development, from its onset to its metastatic spread. Moreover, it has been widely demonstrated that variations to the TME can correspond to prognosis variations. Breast cancer not only modulates the transformation of the environment within the mammary gland, but the same process is observed in metastases as well. In this minireview, we describe the features of TME within the primitive breast cancer, throughout its evolution and spread into the main metastatic sites.
Highlights
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide and is responsible for6.6% of cancer related deaths [1]
Myoepithelial cells, in turn, lay on a basement membrane made of laminin, type IV collagen type IV collagen and proteoglycans and this membrane physically sets the boundaries with the and proteoglycans and this membrane physically sets the boundaries with the surrounding stroma, surrounding stroma, which is predominantly made of type I collagen [7,8]
IL32 is among the most important inflammatory mediators in the BC microenvironment [14]. It is secreted by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) into the breast tumor microenvironment (TME) and it interacts with integrin β3, which is in turn expressed as a membrane receptor by BC cells
Summary
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide and is responsible for. The TME mainly consists of fibroblasts, endothelial cells, leukocytes and extracellular matrix (ECM). All of these elements contribute a non-negligible percentage of the tumor mass and provide it with mechanical support [3]. More recent studies have shown that specific cancers have the tendency to consistently metastasize to specific sites because of their organotropism. Hasone been linked to prognosis, nodal and metastasis in in various cancers (BC being ofwidely them) and it has beenand proposed as adistant potential target for varioustherapy cancers[6].
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