Figures & data
Figure 1. Immunological imbalances in the microenvironment of growing tumors. The tumor microenvironment consists of malignant cells (in black) as well as of non-transformed stromal cells, including endothelial cells and their precursors (pericytes), smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts (FBs) of various phenotypes located within the connective tissue. In addition, neoplastic lesions are heavily infiltrated by immune cells including natural killer (NK) cells, natural killer T (NKT) cell, neutrophils, several subset of B and T lymphocytes, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), regulatory T cells (Tregs), tumor-associated macrophages of the M1 (Ф) or M2 (TAMs) phenotype, immature dendritic cells (iDCs) or mature dendritic cells (mDCs). Based on their functions, these cells can be subdivided into cells with a potentially positive impact (right) or a detrimental effect (left) on antitumor responses. It is still unclear what kind of effect TH17 helper T cells exert in the tumor microenvironment. The net result of the interactions between these tumor-infiltrating cells and their products not only determines the outcome of antitumor immune responses but also influences the survival and proliferation of malignant cells as well as their invasive, angiogenic and metastatic potential (Adapted from ref. Citation7).
