title: Complexity in the tumour microenvironment: Cancer associated fibroblast gene expression patterns identify both common and unique features of tumour-stroma crosstalk across cancer types.
abstract: Cancer is a complex disease, driven by the accumulation of several somatic aberrations but fostered by a two-way interaction between tumour cells and the surrounding microenvironment. Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) represent one of the major players in tumour-stroma crosstalk. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies, often conducted by employing high throughput approaches, have started unravelling the key pathways involved in their functional effects. This review focus on open challenges in the study of CAF properties and function, highlighting at the same time the existence of common mechanisms as well as peculiarities in different cancer types (breast, prostate and lung cancer). Although still limited by current experimental models, which are unable to deal with the full level of complexity of the tumour microenvironment, a better understanding of these mechanisms may enable the identification of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets, to improve current strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Gandellini
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Andriani
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Merlino
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: D'Aiuto
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Roz
authors: Department of Experimental Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: maurizio.callari@cruk.cam.ac.uk.
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Callari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000235:genetics; D005109:Extracellular Matrix; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D059467:Transcriptome; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Breast cancer; Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF); Gene expression; Inter-disease; Lung cancer; Prostate cancer