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Cancer Microenvironment

Section edited by Davide Bedognetti and Jessica Roelands

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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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  3. Colon cancer is a disease with high malignancy and incidence in the world. Tumor immune microenvironment (TIM) and tumor mutational burden (TMB) have been proved to play crucial roles in predicting clinical ou...

    Authors: Xinyi Wang, Jinzhong Duanmu, Xiaorui Fu, Taiyuan Li and Qunguang Jiang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:324
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Treatment of human lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) using current targeted therapies is limited because of their diverse somatic mutations without any specific dominant driver mutations. These mutational di...

    Authors: Hae-Yun Jung, Tae Ho Kim, Jong-Eun Lee, Hong Kwan Kim, Jong Ho Cho, Yong Soo Choi, Sumin Shin, Se-Hoon Lee, Hwanseok Rhee, Hee Kyung Lee, Hyun Jung Choi, Hye Yoon Jang, Seungjae Lee, Jung Hee Kang, Young Ae Choi, Sanghyuk Lee…
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:307
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Immunotherapies targeting glioblastoma (GBM) have led to significant improvements in patient outcomes. TOX is closely associated with the immune environment surrounding tumors, but its role in gliomas is not f...

    Authors: Hao Zhang, Fan Fan, Yuanqiang Yu, Zeyu Wang, Fangkun Liu, Ziyu Dai, Liyang Zhang, Zhixiong Liu and Quan Cheng
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:305
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:368

  6. Bladder cancer (BlCa) taxonomy has proved its impact in patient outcome and selection for targeted therapies, but such transcriptomic-based classification has not yet translated to routine practice. Moreover, ...

    Authors: João Lobo, Sara Monteiro-Reis, Catarina Guimarães-Teixeira, Paula Lopes, Isa Carneiro, Carmen Jerónimo and Rui Henrique
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:303
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. The tumor immune microenvironment is a heterogeneous entity. Gene expression analysis allows us to perform comprehensive immunoprofiling and may assist in dissecting the different components of the immune infi...

    Authors: W. S. M. E. Theelen, O. Krijgsman, K. Monkhorst, T. Kuilman, D. D. G. C. Peters, S. Cornelissen, M. A. Ligtenberg, S. M. Willems, J. L. G. Blaauwgeers, C. J. M. van Noesel, D. S. Peeper, M. M. van den Heuvel and K. Schulze
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:271
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Few studies have delved into the prevalence of distant metastasis (DM +) and survival for patients with lymph node metastases (LN +) by primary site. We aimed to detect differences in distant metastasis and pr...

    Authors: Xin Lou, Jun Li, Ya-Qing Wei, Zhi-Jia Jiang, Ming Chen and Jin-Jin Sun
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:266
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models of cancer have been recognized as better mouse models that recapitulate the characteristics of original malignancies including preserved tumor heterogeneity, lineag...

    Authors: Zhenyang Liu, Michael Ho-Young Ahn, Tomohiro Kurokawa, Amy Ly, Gong Zhang, Fuyou Wang, Teppei Yamada, Ananthan Sadagopan, Jane Cheng, Cristina R. Ferrone, Andrew S. Liss, Kim C. Honselmann, Gregory R. Wojtkiewicz, Soldano Ferrone and Xinhui Wang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:255
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Although oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has a good prognosis, the accurate prediction of survival and risk of treatment failure is essential to design d...

    Authors: Soohyeon Kwon, Soon-Hyun Ahn, Woo-Jin Jeong, Young Ho Jung, Yun Jung Bae, Jin Ho Paik, Jin-Haeng Chung and Hyojin Kim
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:240
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Cancer-related mortality in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) is predominantly caused by development of colorectal liver metastases (CLMs). How to screen the sensitive chemotherapy and targeted therapy is ...

    Authors: Mi Jian, Li Ren, Guodong He, Qi Lin, Wentao Tang, Yijiao Chen, Jingwen Chen, Tianyu Liu, Meiling Ji, Ye Wei, Wenju Chang and Jianmin Xu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:234
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. As a nucleolar protein associated with ribosome biogenesis, pescadillo homolog 1 (PES1) has been reported to participate in the development of many cancers. However, its role in prostate cancer is not clearly ...

    Authors: Zhenming Jiang, Yuxi Zhang, Xi Chen, Yan Wang, Pingeng Wu, Chengzhang Wu and Dong Chen
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:209
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM) in the liver usually die within 1 year. The development of new treatments for MUM has been limited by the lack of diverse MUM cell lines and appropriate animal mod...

    Authors: Takahito Sugase, Bao Q. Lam, Meggie Danielson, Mizue Terai, Andrew E. Aplin, J. Silvio Gutkind and Takami Sato
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:208
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Most tumors develop abnormal fibrotic regions consisting of fibroblasts, immune cells, and a dense extracellular matrix (ECM) immersed in a viscous interstitial fluid, and an abundant fibrotic tumor microenvir...

    Authors: Anette Hauge and Einar K. Rofstad
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:207
    Content type: Review Published on:

  16. Increasing evidences have found that the clinical importance of the interaction between hypoxia and immune status in gastric cancer microenvironment. However, reliable prognostic signatures based on combinatio...

    Authors: Yifan Liu, Jianhua Wu, Weiwei Huang, Shaowen Weng, Baochun Wang, Yiming Chen and Hao Wang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2020 18:201
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. 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
    Content type: Review Published on:

  21. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  30. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  31. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  33. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  34. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  35. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  36. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  37. 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
    Content type: Review Published on:

  38. 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
    Content type: Review Published on:

  39. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  40. 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
    Content type: Review Published on:

  41. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  42. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  43. 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
    Content type: Review Published on:

  44. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  45. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  46. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  47. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  48. 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
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

  49. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:

  50. 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
    Content type: Research Published on:
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Journal of Translational Medicine

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