A Review Of Tumor-Associated Macrophage-Targeted Cancer Therapies

Tumor-associated macrophages, or TAMs, make up a significant component of the tumor microenvironment and contribute to the human immune response to cancer. TAMs can either take a pro-tumorigenic form, promoted by pro-inflammatory cytokines, that facilitates tumor growth and metastasis through the formation of new blood vessels, or an anti-tumorigenic form, promoted by interferons and lipopolysaccharides, that recognizes cancerous cells as malignant entities for destruction. This investigation seeks to explain how macrophages affect the body’s response to cancer and how understanding these mechanisms can be used to develop anti-cancer therapeutics. Several different therapeutic strategies that focus on TAMs are detailed, including biophosphonate therapy to prevent macrophage production, altering levels of cytokines (i.e., CCL2, CXCL12, CSF-1) and adipocytokines to prevent macrophage recruitment, repolarizing macrophages to an anti-tumorigenic form, limiting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production by macrophages, and inducing apoptosis in M2 macrophages with minigene vaccines or engineered apoptotic agents. There are many exciting possibilities for research in this rapidly evolving field, and the hope is that future research will get us one step closer to making cancer treatment as effective and risk-free as treating a common sinus infection.