ReviewFrontiers in immunology2020
Unleashing Natural Killer Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment-The Next Generation of Immunotherapy?
Review in Frontiers in immunology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of natural killer cell therapy for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis and systematic review.Immunologic research · 2025Pooled it
- Paracetamol and Metformin Reduce NK-Cell Susceptibility in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells in Association with Enrichment of Immune-Evasive CD44International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- A fully human pan VL9 HLA-E TCRm antibody enables functional dissection of HLA-E biology and checkpoint signaling.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
- Neutrophil Antigen Presentation Reprograms the Tumor Microenvironment and Elicits Durable and Broad Antitumor Immunity.Cancer research communications · 2026Article
- Methods and applications of patient-derived organoid models for immune microenvironment and immunotherapy research in multiple cancer types.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2026Review
- Article
- Characterizing the Head and Neck Cancer Microenvironment: Implications for Immunotherapy and Prognosis.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Immune cell-based therapies for solid tumors, current challenges and therapeutic advances.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2025Review
- The long non-coding RNA UGDH-AS1 encodes an NK-cell-inhibiting micropeptide in triple-negative breast cancers.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Interferon signaling and STING pathway in head and neck cancers: unlocking immune secrets and therapeutic frontiers.Cancer cell international · 2025Review
- Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-NK92 cells effective against glioblastoma, breast- and pancreatic cancer in vitro and in a murine xenograft model of ovarian cancer.Cancer cell international · 2025Article
- In vivo AAV-SB-CRISPR screens of tumor-infiltrating primary NK cells identify genetic checkpoints of CAR-NK therapy.Nature biotechnology · 2025Article
- Unlocking the Microbial Symphony: The Interplay of Human Microbiota in Cancer Immunotherapy Response.Cancers · 2025Review
- Protocol for isolation and expansion of natural killer cells from human peripheral blood scalable for clinical applications.Biology methods & protocols · 2025Article
- NK cell activity in the tumor microenvironment.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- An intraepithelial ILC1-like natural killer cell subset produces IL-13.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- CAR memory-like NK cells targeting the membrane proximal domain of mesothelin demonstrate promising activity in ovarian cancer.Science advances · 2024Article
- Dysfunctional natural killer cells can be reprogrammed to regain anti-tumor activity.The EMBO journal · 2024Article
- A comprehensive analysis of CD47 expression in various histological subtypes of soft tissue sarcoma: exploring novel opportunities for macrophage-directed treatments.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2024Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The emergence of immunotherapy for cancer treatment bears considerable clinical promise. Nevertheless, many patients remain unresponsive, acquire resistance, or suffer dose-limiting toxicities. Immune-editing of tumors assists their escape from the immune system, and the tumor microenvironment (TME) induces immune suppression through multiple mechanisms. Immunotherapy aims to bolster the activity of immune cells against cancer by targeting these suppressive immunomodulatory processes. Natural Killer (NK) cells are a heterogeneous subset of immune cells, which express a diverse array of activating and inhibitory germline-encoded receptors, and are thus capable of directly targeting and killing cancer cells without the need for MHC specificity. Furthermore, they play a critical role in triggering the adaptive immune response. Enhancing the function of NK cells in the context of cancer is therefore a promising avenue for immunotherapy. Different NK-based therapies have been evaluated in clinical trials, and some have demonstrated clinical benefits, especially in the context of hematological malignancies. Solid tumors remain much more difficult to treat, and the time point and means of intervention of current NK-based treatments still require optimization to achieve long term effects. Here, we review recently described mechanisms of cancer evasion from NK cell immune surveillance, and the therapeutic approaches that aim to potentiate NK function. Specific focus is placed on the use of specialized monoclonal antibodies against moieties on the cancer cell, or on both the tumor and the NK cell. In addition, we highlight newly identified mechanisms that inhibit NK cell activity in the TME, and describe how biochemical modifications of the TME can synergize with current treatments and increase susceptibility to NK cell activity.
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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.