Masters of adaptation: How cancer and immune cell plasticity mediates tumor progression

2025/07/15 by Sheera R. Rosenbaum, Kaiah M. Fields, Heide L. Ford · 1 voice · 1 citation
Medicine · #Cancer Cells and Metastasis #Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers #Cancer, Stress, Anesthesia, and Immune Response

paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003301

openalex publication_date 2025/07/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges to cancer therapy is tumor cell plasticity. Cancer cells can rapidly alter their phenotype to promote survival and evade immune cell attack, while the plasticity of other cells in the tumor microenvironment (such as immune cells, which need to be able to respond to a diverse range of bodily threats) can be leveraged to further promote tumor growth and progression. This Essay discusses the mutual plasticity of cancer and immune cells, with a focus on epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in tumor cells, and explores how this interplay contributes to tumor progression and can be targeted therapeutically.

Citations

• A framework for advancing our understanding of cancer-associated fibroblasts
• Cancer cells educate natural killer cells to a metastasis-promoting cell state
• Lineage tracing reveals the phylodynamics, plasticity, and paths of tumor evolution
• Myeloid cells in the era of cancer immunotherapy: Top 3 unanswered questions
• NKG2A Is a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Immunotherapy Resistant MHC-I Heterogeneous Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
• Universal recording of immune cell interactions in vivo
• Anti-CD19 antibody cotreatment enhances serial killing activity of anti-CD19 CAR-T/-NK cells and reduces trogocytosis
• Immune evasion through mitochondrial transfer in the tumour microenvironment
• Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Serve as Decoys to Suppress NK Cell Anticancer Cytotoxicity in Breast Cancer
• Myogenesis gone awry: the role of developmental pathways in rhabdomyosarcoma
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Cited by

• Hallmarks of cancer—Then and now, and beyond

Discussions

• Kaiah Fields co-authored a review article doi.org/10.1371/jour... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]