MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1617662
This article is part of the Research TopicTargeting cancer-associated fibroblasts: Disrupting immune evasion and therapy resistanceView all articles
Cancer-associated fibroblast-mediated immune evasion: Molecular mechanisms of stromal-immune crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment
Provisionally accepted
- Chongqing Qijiang District People's Hospital, Chongqing, China
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The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex ecosystem and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are critical drivers of the immunosuppressive TME. The dynamic interactions between CAFs and immune cells play a crucial role in tumor progression and immune evasion. This review systematically investigates the interactions between CAFs and different immune cells and elaborates on the molecular mechanisms of CAFmediated immune suppression, with a focus on their multifaceted interactions with various immune cell populations. The present study discusses how CAFs utilize cytokine networks, metabolic reprogramming and immune checkpoint regulation to establish an immunosuppressive TME. Clinical translation should prioritize FAP-directed therapies alongside αPD-1 to concurrently target CAF-immune crosstalk and metabolic competition in the TME.
Keywords: cancer-associated fibroblasts, Immune Evasion, immune cells, Tumor Microenvironment, CAFs
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 19 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Xiang, Jiang and Gong. 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:
Lang Jiang, Chongqing Qijiang District People's Hospital, Chongqing, China
Guangyuan Gong, Chongqing Qijiang District People's Hospital, Chongqing, China
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