Abstract
The tumor microenvironment comprises tumor cells surrounding normal cells and the extracellular matrix. The surrounding normal cells have critical roles in the regulation of growth and metastasis of cancers, including the maintenance of cancer stem cells and the formation of cancer metastatic niches. Recent anti-tumor strategies targeting the tumor microenvironment have included inhibition of angiogenesis and the augmentation of immune reactions. However, in this review, we will focus on stromal cells (fibroblast-like cells), a common constituent of the tumor microenvironment. Since stromal cells regulate the growth of cancer cells positively and negatively through adhesion and secreted factors, anti-tumor strategies should consider modulating tumor–stromal cell interactions through use of small molecules.
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Acknowledgements
On winning the Sumiki-Umezawa Memorial Award 2015 from Japan Antibiotics Research Association, I thank all my colleagues and mentors, many of whom I cannot list in this limited space. However, I extend special thanks to Prof. M Shibasaki, Dr T Watanabe and H Abe for chemical synthetic studies, Dr M Igarashi, Dr M Hatano and C Hayashi for microbiological studies, H Inoue and S Ohba for animal experiments and Dr J Yoshida for mechanistic study.
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Kawada Manabu was awarded Japan Antibiotics Research Association’s Sumiki-Umezawa Memorial Award in 2015. This review article is based on his award-winning research.
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Kawada, M. Small molecules modulating tumor–stromal cell interactions: new candidates for anti-tumor drugs. J Antibiot 69, 411–414 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ja.2016.37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ja.2016.37
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