ReviewJournal of the National Cancer Institute2014
A think tank of TINK/TANKs: tumor-infiltrating/tumor-associated natural killer cells in tumor progression and angiogenesis.
Review in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
96 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 184 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prognostic Significance of Tumor-Infiltrating Natural Killer Cells in Solid Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Pooled it
- Natural killer cells in ovarian cancer therapy: mechanisms, evasion, and therapeutic innovations.Inflammopharmacology · 2026Review
- Combining lenalidomide with IL-2 family of cytokines enhances activating receptor and perforin/granzyme expression in NK cells.PloS one · 2026Article
- Multidimensional plasticity of natural killer cells in tumours.Cell death & disease · 2025Review
- Immunomodulatory Role of Propolis in Hypoxia and in the Tumor Microenvironment.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Prognostic Value of Circulating Lymphocyte Subsets in Cervical Cancer Following Postoperative Radiotherapy.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- A Comprehensive Analysis of the Role of PAX9 in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Current molecular medicine · 2025Article
- The Role of Senescence, its Therapeutic Relevance and Clinical Implications in the Tumor Microenvironment.Theranostics · 2025Review
- Does a natural killer need a CAR?Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Ubiquitin-specific protease 1 facilitates tumor immune escape from natural killer cells and predicts the prognosis in small cell lung cancer.Oncology research · 2025Article
- The development and application of chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR-NK) cells for cancer therapy: current state, challenges and emerging therapeutic advances.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2024Review
- Natural killer cell-based cancer immunotherapy: from basics to clinical trials.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2024Review
- Caspase-4 in glioma indicates deterioration and unfavorable prognosis by affecting tumor cell proliferation and immune cell recruitment.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- Review
- Identification of Immune Infiltration in Odontogenic Keratocyst by Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Comprehensive analysis of angiogenesis pattern and related immune landscape for individual treatment in osteosarcoma.NPJ precision oncology · 2023Article
- Overview of the therapeutic strategies for ER positive breast cancer.Biochemical pharmacology · 2023Review
36 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
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tumor-infiltrating leukocytes are often induced by the cancer microenvironment to display a protumor, proangiogenic phenotype. This "polarization" has been described for several myeloid cells, in particular macrophages. Natural killer (NK) cells represent another population of innate immune cells able to infiltrate tumors. The role of NK in tumor progression and angiogenesis has not yet been fully investigated. Several studies have shown that tumor-infiltrating NK (here referred to as "TINKs") and tumor-associated NK (altered peripheral NK cells, which here we call "TANKs") are compromised in their ability to lysew tumor cells. Recent data have suggested that they are potentially protumorigenic and can also acquire a proangiogenic phenotype. Here we review the properties of TINKs and TANKs and compare their activities to that of NK cells endowed with a physiological proangiogenic phenotype, in particular decidual NK cells. We speculate on the potential origins of TINKs and TANKs and on the immune signals involved in their differentiation and polarization. The TINK and TANK phenotype has broad implications in the immune response to tumors, ranging from a deficient control of cancer and cancer stem cells to an altered crosstalk with other relevant players of the immune response, such as dendritic cells, to induction of cancer angiogenesis. With this recently acquired knowledge that has not yet been put into perspective, we point out new potential avenues for therapeutic intervention involving NK cells as a target or an ally in oncology.
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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.