Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1429812
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of Macrophages in Tumor Initiation, Metastasis, and Cancer Prevention View all 7 articles

Role of Tumor-Associated Macrophages in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Impact, Mechanism and Therapy

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Hepatobiliary Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Liver Transplantation, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanjing, China
  • 3 Other, Nanjing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly frequent malignancy worldwide. The occurrence and progression of HCC is a complex process closely related to the polarization of tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) in the tumor microenvironment (TME). The polarization of TAMs is affected by a variety of signaling pathways and surrounding cells. Evidences have shown that TAMs play a crucial role in HCC, through its interaction with other immune cells in TME. This review summarizes the origin and phenotypic polarization of TAMs; potential impacts of TAMs in HCC and their mechanisms and potential targets for HCC immunotherapy.

    Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, tumor associated macrophages, Tumor Microenvironment, treatment resistance, tumor angiogenesis, Immunotherapy

    Received: 08 May 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Han, Gu, Chen and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jindao Wu, Hepatobiliary Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.