title: Blocking ovarian cancer progression by targeting tumor microenvironmental leukocytes.
abstract: Current therapies for metastatic ovarian carcinoma are based on surgical debulking followed by chemotherapy. After more than three decades implementing treatments that selectively target the tumor cell, the 5-year survival rate for metastatic ovarian cancer patients is still lower than 30%. Novel strategies are therefore urgently needed to complement classical treatments for this malignancy. Recently, leukocytes in the ovarian cancer microenvironment such as regulatory T cells and immature pro-angiogenic/tolerogenic myeloid cells have been demonstrated to play a fundamental role in tumor progression. This review focuses on our recent understanding of the potential of eliminating and/or modulating the phenotype of these leukocytes in vivo and in situ as a novel intervention to complement standard ovarian cancer treatments. The significant effects of targeting these crucial microenvironmental players on cancer vascularization, local tumor growth, distal metastatic spreading and spontaneous anti-tumor immune responses are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Lebanon, NH, USA.
authors.forename: Juan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cubillos-Ruiz
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rutkowski
authors.forename: Jose R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Conejo-Garcia
mesh_terms: D001119:Arginase / Q000378:metabolism; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050503:Indoleamine-Pyrrole 2,3,-Dioxygenase / Q000378:metabolism; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000378:metabolism; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D050503:Indoleamine-Pyrrole 2,3,-Dioxygenase; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D016753:Interleukin-10; D001119:Arginase