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Cancer Microenvironment

Section edited by Davide Bedognetti and Jessica Roelands

© © nopparit / Getty Images / iStock

The Cancer microenvironment section publishes research on the cellular and molecular components of the cancer microenvironment, with a particular focus on translational research that has important implications for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human neoplasms.

Submissions that relate to the characterisation of the molecular profile and regulation of cancers at different tumour stages are especially welcome, as are those which identify specific cancer microenvironments that predict tumour incidence, response to therapy and outcome. Laboratory studies of new drugs and biological agents that target cancer microenvironments will also be considered.

Featured articles


microRNA-1271 impedes the development of prostate cancer by downregulating PES1 and upregulating ERβ

Research | Zhenming Jiang et al


Tumor microenvironment differences between primary tumor and brain metastases

Review | Bernardo Cacho-Díaz et al


Identification of key genes controlling breast cancer stem cell characteristics via stemness indices analysis

Research | Jianying Pei et al

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  1. Osteosarcoma is a highly metastatic primary bone tumor that predominantly affects adolescents and young adults. A mainstay of treatment in osteosarcoma is removal of the primary tumor. However, surgical excisi...

    Authors: Michelle P. Kallis, Caroline Maloney, Brandon Blank, Samuel Z. Soffer, Marc Symons and Bettie M. Steinberg
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:183
  2. Systemic inflammatory response in colorectal cancer (CRC) has been established as a prognostic factor for impaired cancer-specific survival, predominantly in patients with right-sided tumors. On the other hand...

    Authors: Ulf Gunnarsson, Karin Strigård, Sofia Edin, Ioannis Gkekas, Harri Mustonen, Tuomas Kaprio, Camilla Böckelman, Jaana Hagström, Richard Palmqvist and Caj Haglund
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:178
  3. Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers that occur in men worldwide. Autophagy-related genes (ARGs) may play an essential role in multiple biological processes of prostate cancer. However, A...

    Authors: Daixing Hu, Li Jiang, Shengjun Luo, Xin Zhao, Hao Hu, Guozhi Zhao and Wei Tang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:160
  4. Despite considering vast majority of the transcribed molecules as merely noise RNA in the last decades, recent advances in the field of molecular biology revealed the mysterious role of long non-coding RNAs (l...

    Authors: Hossein Mozdarani, Vahid Ezzatizadeh and Roghayeh Rahbar Parvaneh
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:152
  5. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Due to its high morbidity and mortality rates, it is urgent to find a molecular target that contributes to esophageal c...

    Authors: Rui Cai, Ping Wang, Xin Zhao, Xiansheng Lu, Ruxia Deng, Xiaoyu Wang, Zhaoji Su, Chang Hong and Jie Lin
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:139
  6. Gastric cancer is associated with chronic inflammation, but there is still much to understand about the tumor microenvironment and the underlying tumor-promoting mechanisms. The Map kinase-activated protein ki...

    Authors: Fares Qeadan, Pranshu Bansal, Joshua A. Hanson and Ellen J. Beswick
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:137
  7. The most appropriate management for patients with stage IV ovarian cancer remains unclear. Our objective was to understand the main determinants associated with survival and to discuss best surgical management.

    Authors: Yohann Dabi, Cyrille Huchon, Lobna Ouldamer, Sofiane Bendifallah, Pierre Collinet, Alexandre Bricou, Emile Daraï, Marcos Ballester, Vincent Lavoue, Bassam Haddad and Cyril Touboul
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:134
  8. Identifying the early-stage colon adenocarcinoma (ECA) patients who have lower risk cancer vs. the higher risk cancer could improve disease prognosis. Our study aimed to explore whether the glandular morpholog...

    Authors: Meng-Yao Ji, Lei Yuan, Shi-Min Lu, Meng-Ting Gao, Zhi Zeng, Na Zhan, Yi-Juan Ding, Zheng-Ru Liu, Ping-Xiao Huang, Cheng Lu and Wei-Guo Dong
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:129
  9. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a malignancy characterized by metabolic reprogramming. ABAT and ALDH6A1 are metabolic enzymes. In this study, we aim to investigate the associations of ABAT and ALDH6...

    Authors: Jun Lu, Zhan Chen, Hu Zhao, Huiyue Dong, Ling Zhu, Yi Zhang, Jie Wang, Hehuan Zhu, Qiang Cui, Chuang Qi, Shuiliang Wang, Shushang Chen and Jichun Shao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:101
  10. An increasing number of anti-cancer therapeutic agents target specific mutant proteins that are expressed by many different tumor types. Successful use of these therapies is dependent on the presence or absenc...

    Authors: Sinead Toomey, Aoife Carr, Mateusz Janusz Mezynski, Yasir Elamin, Shereen Rafee, Mattia Cremona, Clare Morgan, Stephen Madden, Khairun I. Abdul-Jalil, Kathy Gately, Angela Farrelly, Elaine W. Kay, Susan Kennedy, Kenneth O’Byrne, Liam Grogan, Oscar Breathnach…
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:99
  11. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the nuclear receptor PPARγ, together with that of the cyclooxygenases Cox-1 and Cox-2, in breast cancer (BC) tissues and to correlate the data with se...

    Authors: Wanting Shao, Christina Kuhn, Doris Mayr, Nina Ditsch, Magdalena Kailuwait, Verena Wolf, Nadia Harbeck, Sven Mahner, Udo Jeschke, Vincent Cavaillès and Sophie Sixou
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:94
  12. Metabolic reprogramming, immune evasion and tumor-promoting inflammation are three hallmarks of cancer that provide new perspectives for understanding the biology of cancer. We aimed to figure out the relation...

    Authors: Wenhui Li, Ming Xu, Yu Li, Ziwei Huang, Jun Zhou, Qiuyang Zhao, Kehao Le, Fang Dong, Cheng Wan and Pengfei Yi
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:92
  13. The p.E318K variant of the Melanocyte Inducing Transcription Factor (MITF) has been implicated in genetic predisposition to melanoma as an intermediate penetrance allele. However, the impact of this variant on cl...

    Authors: Giulia Ciccarese, Bruna Dalmasso, William Bruno, Paola Queirolo, Lorenza Pastorino, Virginia Andreotti, Francesco Spagnolo, Enrica Tanda, Giovanni Ponti, Cesare Massone, Francesco Drago, Aurora Parodi, Giovanni Ghigliotti, Maria Antonietta Pizzichetta and Paola Ghiorzo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:78
  14. Pancreatic cancer is a major cause of cancer-related mortality. The identification of effective biomarkers is essential in order to improve management of the disease. Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is a downs...

    Authors: Qimin Zhou, Monika Bauden, Roland Andersson, Dingyuan Hu, György Marko-Varga, Jianfeng Xu, Agata Sasor, Hua Dai, Krzysztof Pawłowski, Katarzyna Said Hilmersson, Xi Chen and Daniel Ansari
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:77
  15. With the gradual unveiling of tumour heterogeneity, cancer stem cells (CSCs) are now being considered the initial component of tumour initiation. However, the mechanisms of the growth and maintenance of breast...

    Authors: Jianying Pei, Yanxia Wang and Yan Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:74
  16. Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is linked to lung cancer. However, upon lung cancer carcinogens stimulation, there were no reports on the relationship between TCTP and lung cell carcinogenic ep...

    Authors: Li-Zhong Liu, Menghuan Wang, Qihang Xin, Bowen Wang, George G. Chen and Ming-Yue Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:66
  17. Cancer recurrence is the important problem of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) patients, lead to a very high mortality rate. Therefore, the identification of candidate markers to predict CCA recurrence is needed in or...

    Authors: Sureerat Padthaisong, Malinee Thanee, Nisana Namwat, Jutarop Phetcharaburanin, Poramate Klanrit, Narong Khuntikeo, Attapol Titapun, Sakkarn Sungkhamanon, Hideyuki Saya and Watcharin Loilome
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:64
  18. Accumulating evidence suggests that plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) plays an important role in bladder tumorigenesis by regulating cell cycle. However, it remains unclear whether and how inhibition o...

    Authors: Hideki Furuya, Kazukuni Hayashi, Yoshiko Shimizu, Nari Kim, Yutaro Tsukikawa, Runpu Chen, Yijun Sun, Owen T. M. Chan, Ian Pagano, Rafael Peres, Kanani Hokutan, Fumie Igari, Keith S. Chan and Charles J. Rosser
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:57
  19. Interaction between malignant cells and immune cells that reside within the tumor microenvironment (TME) modulate different aspects of tumor development and progression. Recent works showed the importance of m...

    Authors: Natasha A. N. Jorge, Jéssica G. V. Cruz, Marco Antônio M. Pretti, Martín H. Bonamino, Patricia A. Possik and Mariana Boroni
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:56
  20. Few data are known regarding the molecular features and patterns of growth and presentation which characterize those lung neoplastic lesions presenting as non-solid nodules (NSN).

    Authors: Chandra Bortolotto, Claudio Maglia, Antonio Ciuffreda, Manuela Coretti, Roberta Catania, Filippo Antonacci, Sergio Carnevale, Ivana Sarotto, Roberto Dore, Andrea Riccardo Filippi, Gabriele Chiara, Daniele Regge, Lorenzo Preda, Patrizia Morbini and Giulia Maria Stella
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:54
  21. The concept of cancer as a cell-autonomous disease has been challenged by the wealth of knowledge gathered in the past decades on the importance of tumor microenvironment (TM) in cancer progression and metasta...

    Authors: Jennifer Pasquier, Pegah Ghiabi, Lotfi Chouchane, Kais Razzouk, Shahin Rafii and Arash Rafii
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:52
  22. Zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1, also termed TCF8 and δEF1) is a crucial member of the zinc finger-homeodomain transcription factor family, originally identified as a binding protein of the lens-spe...

    Authors: Hua-Tao Wu, Hui-Ting Zhong, Guan-Wu Li, Jia-Xin Shen, Qian-Qian Ye, Man-Li Zhang and Jing Liu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:51
  23. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be prognostic biomarkers in many types of cancer. We aimed to identify a lncRNA signature that can predict the prognosis in patients with esophageal squamou...

    Authors: Nuo-Qing Weng, Jun Chi, Jing Wen, Shi-Juan Mai, Mei-Yin Zhang, Long Huang, Ji Liu, Xian-Zi Yang, Guo-Liang Xu, Jian-Hua Fu and Hui-Yun Wang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:47
  24. The PTEN tumor suppressor is the second most commonly inactivated gene across cancer types. While it’s role in PI3K/AKT and DNA damage pathways are clear, increasing evidences suggest that PTEN may also promote a...

    Authors: Vildan B. Cetintas and Nizar N. Batada
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:45
  25. Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and other diseases. Prostanoid receptors are clearly involved in the development of many types of cancer. However, their ...

    Authors: Kiyoshi Misawa, Masato Mima, Yamada Satoshi, Atsushi Imai, Daiki Mochizuki, Ryuji Ishikawa, Junya Kita, Yuki Yamaguchi, Shiori Endo, Yuki Misawa and Hiroyuki Mineta
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:31
  26. Most oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) occur on the basis of oral leukoplakias (OLP). The histologic degree of dysplasia is insufficient for the prediction of OLP malignant transformation. Immunologic param...

    Authors: Manuel Weber, Falk Wehrhan, Christoph Baran, Abbas Agaimy, Maike Büttner-Herold, Hatice Öztürk, Kristina Neubauer, Claudia Wickenhauser, Marco Kesting and Jutta Ries
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:11
  27. The present review aimed to discuss contemporary scientific literature involving differences between the tumor microenvironment (TME) in melanoma, lung cancer, and breast cancer in their primary site and TME i...

    Authors: Bernardo Cacho-Díaz, Donovan R. García-Botello, Talia Wegman-Ostrosky, Gervith Reyes-Soto, Elizabeth Ortiz-Sánchez and Luis Alonso Herrera-Montalvo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:1
  28. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal cancer in female genital tumors. New disease markers and novel therapeutic strategies are urgent to identify considering the current status of treatment. Rece...

    Authors: Rui Li, Tianfeng Liu, Juanjuan Shi, Wenqing Luan, Xuan Wei, Jiangtao Yu, Hongluan Mao and Peishu Liu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:428
  29. Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most lethal and most prevalent malignant tumors, and its incidence and mortality are increasing annually. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common pathological type of lung ...

    Authors: Lei Zhang, Zhe Zhang and Zhenglun Yu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:423
  30. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent primary liver cancer associated with a high mortality. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as regulators in the development and progression ...

    Authors: Weiwei Wang, Guoyong Chen, Bing Wang, Zhenhua Yuan, Guangbo Liu, Biao Niu, Yongfeng Chen, Shaotang Zhou, Junchuang He and Huanzhou Xue
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:421
  31. The NLRP3 inflammasome plays an important role in mediating podocyte injury in various kidney diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate whether NLRP3 expression associated with podocyte injury was inv...

    Authors: Wei Peng, Gai-qin Pei, Yi Tang, Li Tan and Wei Qin
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:406
  32. As a peripheral blood biomarker, the crucial role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOTAIR has recently been suggested in many types of disorder. Among these reports, few investigations have indicated overexpres...

    Authors: Vahid Ezzatizadeh and Hossein Mozdarani
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:404
  33. Although there is abundant evidence indicating the connection between triglyceride and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), few reports or cohort studies confirm that high TG concentration may predict the incidenc...

    Authors: Jing Zhao, Yuan Zhang, Fengjiang Wei, Jiani Song, Zhi Cao, Chen Chen, Kai Zhang, Shuzhi Feng, Yaogang Wang and Wei-Dong Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:403
  34. Bladder cancer (BC) is the most common malignant disease of the urinary tract. Recurrent high grade non muscle invasive BC carries a serious risk for progression and subsequent metastases. The most common prec...

    Authors: Marina Degoricija, Jelena Korac-Prlic, Katarina Vilovic, Tonci Ivanisevic, Benedikt Haupt, Vinko Palada, Marina Petkovic, Ivana Karaman and Janos Terzic
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:394
  35. Clinical variables may correlate with lack of response to treatment (primary resistance) or clinical benefit in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) treated with anti-programmed death 1/ligand...

    Authors: Brian W. Labadie, Ping Liu, Riyue Bao, Michael Crist, Ricardo Fernandes, Laura Ferreira, Scott Graupner, Andrew S. Poklepovic, Ignacio Duran, Saman Maleki Vareki, Arjun V. Balar and Jason J. Luke
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:386
  36. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in female patients worldwide. Because of its heterogeneity in terms of prognosis and therapeutic response, biomarkers with the potential to predict survival or assis...

    Authors: Xuanwen Bao, Natasa Anastasov, Yanfang Wang and Michael Rosemann
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:380
  37. The purification of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by means of density gradient (1.07 g/mL) centrifugation is one of the most commonly used methods in diagnostics and research laboratories as well ...

    Authors: Luigi Coppola, Giovanni Smaldone, Alessandra Cianflone, Simona Baselice, Peppino Mirabelli and Marco Salvatore
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:371
  38. The purpose of the present work is to underline the importance of obtaining a standardized procedure to ensure and evaluate both clinical and research usability of human tissue samples. The study, which was ca...

    Authors: Margalida Esteva-Socias, María-Jesús Artiga, Olga Bahamonde, Oihana Belar, Raquel Bermudo, Erika Castro, Teresa Escámez, Máximo Fraga, Laura Jauregui-Mosquera, Isabel Novoa, Lorena Peiró-Chova, Juan-David Rejón, María Ruiz-Miró, Paula Vieiro-Balo, Virginia Villar-Campo, Sandra Zazo…
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:370
  39. Oxidized low density lipoprotein receptor 1 (OLR1), a type II membrane protein, has been identified as receptor for oxidized low-density lipoprotein. The current study firstly provided evidence that OLR1 regul...

    Authors: Long Jiang, Shanshan Jiang, Wenjie Zhou, Jia Huang, Yongbin Lin, Hao Long and Qingquan Luo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:369
  40. Hypertension often presents with microvascular rarefaction (MVR), which is closely associated with impaired angiogenesis. Early detection of MVR is essential for systemic assessment in patient with hypertensio...

    Authors: Jianwen Liang, Yan Li, Long Chen, Wenhao Xia, Guifu Wu, Xinzhu Tong, Chen Su, Jiang He, Xiufang Lin and Jun Tao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:368

    The Correction to this article has been published in Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:26

  41. Stem cell therapy is investigated as a treatment option for patients with ischemic heart disease. In this study, long-term safety and efficacy of autologous intra-myocardial injections of adipose-derived strom...

    Authors: Abbas Ali Qayyum, Anders Bruun Mathiasen, Steffen Helqvist, Erik Jørgensen, Mandana Haack-Sørensen, Annette Ekblond and Jens Kastrup
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:360
  42. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) has been proposed as a novel target for coronary artery disease (CAD). Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is characterized by high prevalence of CAD and major c...

    Authors: Ye-Xuan Cao, Jing-Lu Jin, Di Sun, Hui-Hui Liu, Yuan-Lin Guo, Na-Qiong Wu, Rui-Xia Xu, Cheng-Gang Zhu, Qian Dong, Jing Sun and Jian-Jun Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:367
  43. Acute kidney injury (AKI) has high morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICU). It can also lead to chronic kidney disease (CKD), more costs and longer hospital stay. Early identification of AKI is i...

    Authors: Qi Wang, Yi Tang, Jiaojiao Zhou and Wei Qin
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:359
  44. Pituitary adenoma and meningioma are the most common benign tumors in the central nervous system. Pituitary adenoma associated with meningioma (PAM) is a rare disease and the clinical features and mechanisms o...

    Authors: Haibo Zhu, Yazhou Miao, Yutao Shen, Jing Guo, Weiyan Xie, Sida Zhao, Wei Dong, Yazhuo Zhang and Chuzhong Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:354
  45. Accumulating evidence indicates that CD36 initiates metastasis and correlates with an unfavorable prognosis in cancers. However, there are few reports regarding the roles of CD36 in initiation and metastasis o...

    Authors: Min Deng, Xiaodong Cai, Ling Long, Linying Xie, Hongmei Ma, Youjian Zhou, Shuguang Liu and Chao Zeng
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:352
  46. Collagen is the major component of the tumor microenvironment and participates in cancer fibrosis. Collagen biosynthesis can be regulated by cancer cells through mutated genes, transcription factors, signaling...

    Authors: Shuaishuai Xu, Huaxiang Xu, Wenquan Wang, Shuo Li, Hao Li, Tianjiao Li, Wuhu Zhang, Xianjun Yu and Liang Liu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:309
  47. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a well-known ligand-activated cytoplasmic transcription factor that contributes to cellular responses against environmental toxins and carcinogens. AhR is activated by a ...

    Authors: Hui Zhao, Lin Chen, Tian Yang, Ya-Long Feng, Nosratola D. Vaziri, Bao-Li Liu, Qing-Quan Liu, Yan Guo and Ying-Yong Zhao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:302
  48. BRAF mutations occur in 2–4% non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and can be categorized into three functional classes based on signaling mechanism and kinase activity: RAS-independent kinase-activating V6...

    Authors: Quan Lin, Haoran Zhang, Huaxin Ding, Jun Qian, Analyn Lizaso, Jing Lin, Han Han-Zhang, Jianxing Xiang, Yuping Li and Hong Zhu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:298
  49. The scientific understanding of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has improved in recent decades. Nevertheless, there has been little research into the role that lncRNAs play in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (c...

    Authors: Jiang-hui Zeng, Wei Lu, Liang Liang, Gang Chen, Hui-hua Lan, Xiu-Yun Liang and Xu Zhu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:281

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