ArticlePloS one2011
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) form an interconnected cellular supportive network in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 127 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
127 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 185 citations in OpenAlex.
- 2021 American Thyroid Association Guidelines for Management of Patients with Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2021Guideline
- Macrophages as Drivers of Resistance to Dabrafenib Plus Trametinib Therapy in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Anaplastic thyroid cancer: genomic landscape, molecular drivers and novel therapeutics.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Microenvironmental Control of Thyroid Cancer Plasticity and Radioiodine Resistance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Spatial and single-nuclei transcriptomics reveals idiosyncratic and generic patterns in papillary and anaplastic thyroid cancers.Molecular oncology · 2026Article
- Convergent Mechanistic Pathways Driving the Anaplastic Phenotype in Thyroid Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Recent Advances in Neoadjuvant Treatment of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma: A Narrative Review.Current treatment options in oncology · 2026Review
- Novel a new prognostic model of thyroid carcinoma based on macrophage and cuproptosis-related lncRNA.Cancer cell international · 2026Article
- Cancer Stemness and Dedifferentiation in Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma: Insights into a Multigenic, Microenvironmental Network and the Role of CD44.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Loss of tumor cell MHC class II drives MAPK inhibitor insensitivity of BRAF-mutant anaplastic thyroid cancers.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Article
- Impact of the tumor microenvironment on survival in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Anaplastic thyroid cancer: Genetic roles, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.Genes & diseases · 2025Review
- NOVEL INSIGHTS IN ADVANCED THYROID CARCINOMA: FROM MECHANISMS TO TREATMENTS: Molecular insights into the origin, biology, and treatment of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.European thyroid journal · 2025Review
- NOX Family: Regulators of Reactive Oxygen Species Balance in Tumor Cells.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Review
- Review
- Identification of risk factors for high-risk dedifferentiation in papillary thyroid carcinoma and construction of discriminative model.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Aggressive Types of Malignant Thyroid Neoplasms.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Metabolic Reprogramming in Thyroid Cancer.Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea) · 2024Review
- Advances in the management of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: transforming a life-threatening condition into a potentially treatable disease.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2024Review
- Genomic alterations in thyroid cancer: biological and clinical insights.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2024Review
67 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA relationship between the increased density of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and decreased survival was recently reported in thyroid cancer patients. Among these tumors, anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most aggressive solid tumors in humans. TAMs (type M2) have been recognized as promoting tumor growth. The purpose of our study was to analyze with immunohistochemistry the presence of TAMs in a series of 27 ATC. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsSeveral macrophages markers such as NADPH oxidase complex NOX2-p22phox, CD163 and CD 68 were used. Immunostainings showed that TAMs represent more than 50% of nucleated cells in all ATCs. Moreover, these markers allowed the identification of elongated thin ramified cytoplasmic extensions, bestowing a "microglia-like" appearance on these cells which we termed "Ramified TAMs" (RTAMs). In contrast, cancer cells were totally negative. Cellular stroma was highly simplified since apart from cancer cells and blood vessels, RTAMs were the only other cellular component. RTAMs were evenly distributed and intermingled with cancer cells, and were in direct contact with other RTAMs via their ramifications. Moreover, RTAMs displayed strong immunostaining for connexin Cx43. Long chains of interconnected RTAMs arose from perivascular clusters and were dispersed within the tumor parenchyma. When expressed, the glucose transporter Glut1 was found in RTAMs and blood vessels, but rarely in cancer cells.
conclusionATCs display a very dense network of interconnected RTAMs in direct contact with intermingled cancer cells. To our knowledge this is the first time that such a network is described in a malignant tumor. This network was found in all our studied cases and appeared specific to ATC, since it was not found in differentiated thyroid cancers specimens. Taken together, these results suggest that RTAMs network is directly related to the aggressiveness of the disease via metabolic and trophic functions which remain to be determined.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.