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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1625114

This article is part of the Research TopicDiagnosis and Management of Pancreatic CancerView all 3 articles

The role of inflammatory factors in the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer

Provisionally accepted
Yuzhang YuanYuzhang Yuan1Haozhe ZhangHaozhe Zhang1Zehua WangZehua Wang1Huang LuyinHuang Luyin2DERYA KABACAOGLUDERYA KABACAOGLU3Boxing ZhangBoxing Zhang4Liang SongLiang Song4Jiaoyu AiJiaoyu Ai2*
  • 1First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
  • 2Department of Gastroenterology, The First Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
  • 3Comprehensive Cancer Center Munich CCCM, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
  • 4Medical Experiment Center, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China

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Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis, and the tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a pivotal role in its initiation, progression, and response to treatment.Recent studies have highlighted the critical involvement of inflammatory factors in shaping and sustaining the PC microenvironment. Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of this cancer, with inflammatory molecules such as cytokines, chemokines, proteases, and other immune-modulatory factors driving tumor cell proliferation, metastasis, and resistance to therapy. These inflammatory factors exert their effects by modulating immune cell infiltration, extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, and angiogenesis. This review provides an overview of the diverse roles of inflammatory factors in the PC TME and explores their potential as therapeutic targets. It offers new perspectives for developing novel immunotherapies and inflammation-modulating strategies to improve the treatment of PC.

Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer, Inflammatory factors, Tumor Microenvironment, immunology, targeted therapy

Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Zhang, Wang, Luyin, KABACAOGLU, Zhang, Song and Ai. 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: Jiaoyu Ai, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 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.

Supplementary Material