Volume 30, Issue 2, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.4063
Research progress in the role and mechanism of breast cancer-associated fibroblasts
Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in women. Breast cancer consists of a variety of heterogeneous tissues whose abnormal microenvironment regulates tumor progression and enables breast cancer cells to evade tumor therapy. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the main cell types in the microenvironment of breast cancer, accounting for 80% of the tumor parenchyma. CAFs can induce tumorigenesis, proliferation, invasion and metastasis by participating in the activation process of growth factor and cytokine secretion and paracrine. Treatment resistance is the main cause of poor treatment effect and even failure of treatment in breast cancer patients. Although breast cancer treatment has made great progress in recent years, it is still necessary to develop new prognostic markers and drugs targeting key signaling pathways to improve treatment efficiency and reduce side effects. CAFs are an effective clinical diagnostic marker, therapeutic target and prognostic marker. Here we focus on the role of CAFs in breast cancer microenvironment and its molecular signaling mechanism in breast cancer.
Keywords
Breast cancer; breast cancer-associated fibroblasts