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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. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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

  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. 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
  33. 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
  34. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death in gynecological cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) contribute to the occurrence, progression and resistance. Small nucleolar RNAs (SnoRNAs), a class of small molecul...

    Authors: Wenjing Zhu, Jumin Niu, Miao He, Liwen Zhang, Xuemei Lv, Fangxiao Liu, Longyang Jiang, Jing Zhang, Zhaojin Yu, Lin Zhao, Jia Bi, Yuanyuan Yan, Qian Wei, Hong Huo, Yue Fan, Yuzong Chen…
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:259
  35. Plexiform fibromyxoma (PF) is a rare gastric tumor often confused with gastrointestinal stromal tumor. These so-called “benign” tumors often present with upper GI bleeding and gastric outlet obstruction. It wa...

    Authors: Sudeep Banerjee, Christopher L. Corless, Markku M. Miettinen, Sangkyu Noh, Rowan Ustoy, Jessica L. Davis, Chih-Min Tang, Mayra Yebra, Adam M. Burgoyne and Jason K. Sicklick
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:246
  36. Bone metastases occur rarely in patients suffering from malignant melanoma, although their onset severely worsens both prognosis and quality of life. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes (Exos) are ...

    Authors: Francesco Mannavola, Marco Tucci, Claudia Felici, Anna Passarelli, Stella D’Oronzo and Francesco Silvestris
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:230
  37. Immune infiltration may predict survival and have clinical significance in lung cancer. However, immune signatures derived from immune profiling based on bulk tumor transcriptomes have not been systematically ...

    Authors: Xiaodong Yang, Yu Shi, Ming Li, Tao Lu, Junjie Xi, Zongwu Lin, Wei Jiang, Weigang Guo, Cheng Zhan and Qun Wang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:217
  38. New treatment options for metastasised high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) are urgently needed. HGSC frequently metastasises to the omentum, inducing angiogenesis in the local omental microvasculature to facili...

    Authors: Md Zahidul I. Pranjol, Dmitry A. Zinovkin, Annelie R. T. Maskell, Laura J. Stephens, Sergey L. Achinovich, Dmitry M. Los’, Eldar A. Nadyrov, Michael Hannemann, Nicholas J. Gutowski and Jacqueline L. Whatmore
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:216
  39. The human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) family of transmembrane tyrosine kinases is overexpressed and correlates with poor prognosis and decreased survival in many cancers. The receptor family has bee...

    Authors: Sabrina A. Maisel, Derrick Broka, Benjamin Atwell, Thomas Bunch, Robert Kupp, Shiv K. Singh, Shwetal Mehta and Joyce Schroeder
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:201
  40. One main challenge in ovarian cancer rests on the presence of a relapse and an important metastatic disease, despite extensive surgical debulking and chemotherapy. The difficulty in containing metastatic cance...

    Authors: Jessica Hoarau-Véchot, Cyril Touboul, Najeeb Halabi, Morgane Blot-Dupin, Raphael Lis, Charbel Abi Khalil, Shahin Rafii, Arash Rafii and Jennifer Pasquier
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:194
  41. Tumors develop by progression through a series of stages. Every cell of the tumor microenvironment is constantly changing in the flow of the cancer progression. It has become clear in recent years that stroma ...

    Authors: F. Lessi, C. Scatena, P. Aretini, M. Menicagli, S. Franceschi, A. G. Naccarato and C. M. Mazzanti
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:187
  42. Glioblastomas have a high degree of malignancy, high recurrence rate, high mortality rate, and low cure rate. Searching for new markers of glioblastomas is of great significance for improving the diagnosis, pr...

    Authors: Siqi Wang, Fang Liu, Yuhui Wang, Wenliang Fan, Hongyang Zhao, Liying Liu, Chunyuan Cen, Xiaobin Jiang, Min Sun and Ping Han
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:179
  43. Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults, and it is responsible for approximately 90–95% of cases. Although extensive evidence has suggested that many immune-...

    Authors: Enyang Zhao, Lihong Li, Wenfu Zhang, Wanhui Wang, Yunhui Chan, Bosen You and Xuedong Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:177
  44. Impairment of natural killer (NK) cell activity is an important mechanism of tumor immunoevasion. T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-3 (Tim-3) is an activation-induced inhibitory molecule, inducing ...

    Authors: Yujia Zheng, Yu Li, Jingyao Lian, Huiyun Yang, Feng Li, Song Zhao, Yu Qi, Yi Zhang and Lan Huang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:165
  45. MicroRNA (miRNA) mediate post-transcriptional gene repression and are involved in a variety of human diseases, including cancer. Soft tissue sarcomas are rare malignancies with a variety of histological subtyp...

    Authors: Clara Benna, Senthilkumar Rajendran, Marco Rastrelli and Simone Mocellin
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:153
  46. Esophageal cancer is the sixth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the main reason for tumor relapse in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The NOTCH pathway i...

    Authors: Meysam Moghbeli, Hooman Mosannen Mozaffari, Bahram Memar, Mohammad Mahdi Forghanifard, Mehran Gholamin and Mohammad Reza Abbaszadegan
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:126
  47. Various proinflammatory cytokines can be detected within the melanoma tumor microenvironment. Interleukin 32 (IL32) is produced by T cells, NK cells and monocytes/macrophages, but also by a subset of melanoma ...

    Authors: Helicia Paz, Jennifer Tsoi, Anusha Kalbasi, Catherine S. Grasso, William H. McBride, Dörthe Schaue, Lisa H. Butterfield, Deena M. Maurer, Antoni Ribas, Thomas G. Graeber and James S. Economou
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2019 17:113

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