title: [Prostate cancer microenvironment: Its structure, functions and therapeutic applications].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the field of prostate cancer there is a growing tendency for more and more studies to emphasise the predominant role of the zone situated between the tumour and the host: the tumour microenvironment. The aim of this article is to describe the structure and the functions of the prostate cancer microenvironment as well as the principal treatments that are being applied to it.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and ScienceDirect databases have been interrogated using the association of keywords "tumour microenvironment" and "neoplasm therapy" along with "microenvironnement tumoral" and "traitements". Of the 593 articles initially found, 50 were finally included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The tumour microenvironment principally includes host elements that are diverted from their primary functions and encourage the development of the tumour. In it we find immunity cells, support tissue as well as vascular and lymphatic neovascularization. Highlighting the major role played by this microenvironment has led to the development of specific treatments, notably antiangiogenic therapy and immunotherapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tumour microenvironment, the tumour and the host influence themselves mutually and create a variable situation over time. Improvement of the knowledge of the prostate cancer microenvironment gradually enables us to pass from an approach centred on the tumour to a broader approach to the whole tumoral ecosystem. This enabled the emergence of new treatments whose place in the therapeutic arsenal still need to be found.
authors.affiliation: Service d'urologie, centre hospitalo-universitaire la Milétrie, Poitiers, France; X chromosome and cancer laboratory, Lady Davis institute for medical research, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada. Electronic address: lorionrom@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lorion
authors.affiliation: Department of urology, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada; X chromosome and cancer laboratory, Lady Davis institute for medical research, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bladou
authors.affiliation: Department of pathology, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada; X chromosome and cancer laboratory, Lady Davis institute for medical research, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spatz
authors.affiliation: X chromosome and cancer laboratory, Lady Davis institute for medical research, Jewish general hospital, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van Kempen
authors.affiliation: Service d'urologie, centre hospitalier universitaire de Bicêtre, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Irani
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
keywords: Angiogenesis; Angiogenèse; Cancer de la prostate; Extracellular matrix; Immunologie; Immunology; Immunomodulation; Matrice extracellulaire; Microenvironnement tumoral; Prostate neoplasm; Tumour microenvironment