Activation of Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1 Signaling in Gastric Cancer-associated Fibroblasts Increases Their Motility, via Expression of Rhomboid 5 Homolog 2, and Ability to Induce Invasiveness of Gastric Cancer Cells

High stromal transforming growth factor β–induced expression is a novel marker of progression and poor prognosis in gastric cancer

“…Mizoi et al previously reported that TGF‐β signalling was significantly upregulated in the cancer stromal tissues in GC. TGF‐β signalling was also shown to be activated in fibroblasts of GC tissues . Moreover, Fuyuhiro et al suggested that fibroblasts around GC were associated with aggressiveness of GC cells via the TGF‐β signalling .…”

PD‐L1 expression enhancement by infiltrating macrophage‐derived tumor necrosis factor‐α leads to poor pancreatic cancer prognosis

“…Total RNA was extracted from cultured cells or human tissues using a RNeasy Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Tokyo, Japan), and reverse transcription and real‐time PCR were performed as previously described . The following real‐time PCR primers were used:…”

Recent advances in understanding the complexities of metastasis

“…Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been shown to promote cancer cell invasion and metastasis 103 through a number of mechanisms, including exerting physical forces on cancer cells via heterotypic E-cadherin/N-cadherin adhesions that enable collective invasion 71 ( Figure 1i and Figure 2c). In addition, it is known that CAFs heavily influence cancer cell behaviour by inducing processes such as EMT to initiate their invasion 104– 107 or driving apoptosis to facilitate the switch between expansive invasion and CAF-led invasion 108 . Thus, the concept that tumours behave as communities 109 , in which cooperative behaviour occurs not only between cancer cell subclones but also between malignant and non-malignant cells 110 , adds significantly to the layers of complexity in treating these highly heterogeneous tumours.…”