Can targeting the tumor microenvironment help to treat breast cancer?
What is tumor microenvironment and how is it important for cancer? In the past, cancer research was mainly focused on the cancer cell itself. Recently, scientists have begun to investigate how the rest of our body influences the cancer cell. The tumor microenvironment consists of normal cells and molecules that surround cancer cells; scientists now think that the communication between the tumor cells and the surrounding cells helps drive the tumor growth process (Hu and Polyak 2008). The process by which normal cells become benign tumor cells, benign tumor cells are transformed to malignant cells, and malignant cells turn metastatic may depend on the molecular signals between the cells and the surrounding area (Ma et al. 2009; Liotta et al. 2001). Contained within the tumor microenvironment are normal epithelial cells, fibroblasts, cells that make up the blood vessels, immune cells that come from the blood stream, strands of fibers that hold the cell together also known as extracellula
