Overcoming Physiologic Barriers to Treatments for Hematologic Malignancies by Molecularly Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment

📖 The Scoop

Hematologic malignancies (HMs) represent a group of hematologic cancers originating from bone marrow or lymphoid organs. Currently, leukaemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma are the most common HMs. Conventional treatments for HMs include bone marrow transplantation, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Despite the significant achievements obtained over the past decade in the drug therapy of HMs, tumor metastasis and relapse in patients often occurred after an initial response, indicating the generation of drug resistance to current therapies. Moreover, many clinically used therapeutic drugs are often associated with dose-related side effects and a lack of specificity to tumor tissues. The tumor microenvironment (TME) in HMs consists of a complicated network of cellular interactions and signaling cross-talking within the bone marrow cavity, and it plays an essential role in the progression and metastasis of HM. Furthermore, the TME in HMs has formed physiologic barriers such as immunosuppressive microenvironment, upregulated anti-apoptotic system, drug resistance, etc. to facilitate drug resistance and relapse of HMs. It has become widely accepted that effective treatment against HMs may require targeting both the cancer cell and TME.

Genre: Science / General (fancy, right?)