Immune Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment of Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Abstract

Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) are a rare heterogeneous group of malignant neoplasms characterized by their aggressive course and poor response to treatment. This determines the relevance of research aimed at studying the pathogenesis of STSs. By now, it is known that STSs is characterized by complex relationships between the tumor cells and immune cells of the microenvironment. Dynamic interactions between tumor cells and components of the microenvironment enhance adaptation to changing environmental conditions, which provides the high aggressive potential of STSs and resistance to antitumor therapy. Today, active research is being conducted to find effective antitumor drugs and to evaluate the possibility of using therapy with immune cells of STS. The difficulty in assessing the efficacy of new antitumor options is primarily due to the high heterogeneity of this group of malignant neoplasms. Studying the role of immune cells in the microenvironment in the progression STSs and resistance to antitumor therapies will provide the discovery of new biomarkers of the disease and the prediction of response to immunotherapy. In addition, it will help to initially divide patients into subgroups of good and poor response to immunotherapy, thus avoiding wasting precious time in selecting the appropriate antitumor agent.

Clinical and translational implications of immunotherapy in sarcomas

“…TAMs represent the major components in the tumor sarcoma microenvironment and can influence tumor growth and progression as well as cancer-related inflammation. TAMs can be present in the TiME as precursors including blood monocytes, monocyte-related myeloid-derived suppressor cells (M-MDSCs), and tissue-resident macrophages that are activated and differentiated into TAMs in response to cancer-related inflammatory factors ( 11 ).…”

Identifying specific TLS-associated genes as potential biomarkers for predicting prognosis and evaluating the efficacy of immunotherapy in soft tissue sarcoma

“…Immunotherapy has achieved positive results in various cancers and even changed the treatment direction and outcome of refractory tumors such as malignant melanoma ( 7 ). Currently, STS immunotherapy has achieved certain efficacy in some histological types, but the overall situation remains concerning ( 8 ). There is an urgent need to further explore the STS tumor immune microenvironment and identify more effective immunotherapy strategies and prognostic biomarkers ( 9 , 10 ).…”