TY - JOUR
T1 - Targeting the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer
T2 - overcoming treatment barriers and improving local immune responses
AU - Strauss, J.
AU - Alewine, C.
AU - Figg, W. D.
AU - Duffy, A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, The author(s).
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - Historically, patients diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer have faced a grim prognosis. The survival benefit seen with systemic chemotherapies and even combinations thereof have been disappointing. However, growing data suggest that the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer may be contributing to this poor prognosis. This microenvironment has a dense fibrotic stroma, and is hypoxic and highly immunosuppressive, all of which pose barriers to treatment. Newer strategies looking to disrupt the fibrotic stroma, target hypoxic areas, and improve local immune responses in the tumor microenvironment are currently undergoing clinical evaluation and seem to offer great promise. In addition to these therapies, preclinical work evaluating novel cytotoxic agents including nanoparticles has also been encouraging. While much research still needs to be done, these strategies offer new hope for patients with pancreatic cancer.
AB - Historically, patients diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer have faced a grim prognosis. The survival benefit seen with systemic chemotherapies and even combinations thereof have been disappointing. However, growing data suggest that the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer may be contributing to this poor prognosis. This microenvironment has a dense fibrotic stroma, and is hypoxic and highly immunosuppressive, all of which pose barriers to treatment. Newer strategies looking to disrupt the fibrotic stroma, target hypoxic areas, and improve local immune responses in the tumor microenvironment are currently undergoing clinical evaluation and seem to offer great promise. In addition to these therapies, preclinical work evaluating novel cytotoxic agents including nanoparticles has also been encouraging. While much research still needs to be done, these strategies offer new hope for patients with pancreatic cancer.
KW - Immune responses
KW - Microenvironment
KW - Pancreatic cancer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949777388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12094-015-1459-8
DO - 10.1007/s12094-015-1459-8
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26661112
AN - SCOPUS:84949777388
SN - 1699-048X
VL - 18
SP - 653
EP - 659
JO - Clinical and Translational Oncology
JF - Clinical and Translational Oncology
IS - 7
ER -