ReviewCancers2020
Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts: Versatile Players in the Tumor Microenvironment.
Review in Cancers, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers.
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
75 citing papers in PubMed, 120 citations in OpenAlex.
- Differential Protumoral Mechanisms Induced by CAFs in Cervical Cancer Cells Occur Independently of 17β-Estradiol Stimulation.Cancers · 2026Article
- CXCL1 in triple‑negative breast cancer: Mechanisms, challenges, and therapeutic opportunities (Review).Oncology reports · 2026Review
- Immune cross talk and therapeutic advances in lactate metabolism in the tumor microenvironment (Review).Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Review
- Targeting phase separation: a new strategy to disrupt the stromal-immune axis in colorectal cancer.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- Signalling pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis and invasion: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Review
- YAP1 Is a Crucial Nexus in the Tumor Microenvironment.Current medical science · 2026Review
- The Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts and Tumor-Associated Macrophages in the Tumor Microenvironment and Their Impact on Ovarian Cancer Survival and Therapy.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Provoking myofibroblast death: Strategies to resolve fibrosis and remodel tumor microenvironment.World journal of clinical oncology · 2025Review
- Bibliometric analysis reveals the current status and future trends of cancer associated fibroblasts research in breast cancer.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Fusobacterium nucleatum increases CTGF expression through TLR2-YAP signaling axis in cancer-associated fibroblasts, thereby promoting colorectal cancer progression.Cancer cell international · 2025Article
- Article
- The Role of Tumor Microenvironment in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Its Therapeutic Targeting.Cells · 2025Review
- Classification of differentially activated groups of fibroblasts using morphodynamic and motile features.APL bioengineering · 2025Article
- The Current State of Tumor Microenvironment-Specific Therapies for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2025Review
- Spheroid morphology of lung cancer cell lines correlates with oncological profiles.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Colorectal carcinoma organoid and cancer-associated fibroblasts co-culture system for drug evaluation.In vitro models · 2025Article
- Article
- Bispecific Antibodies in Glioblastoma: Mechanistic Advances, Delivery Innovations, and Translational Challenges in Overcoming Immune Escape.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- Immune snapshots along the inflammation-to-cancer road in bladder urothelium.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Spatial microbiome-metabolic crosstalk drives CD8Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
15 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
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are indispensable architects of the tumor microenvironment. They perform the essential functions of extracellular matrix deposition, stromal remodeling, tumor vasculature modulation, modification of tumor metabolism, and participation in crosstalk between cancer and immune cells. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the principal differences between normal fibroblasts and CAFs, the origin of CAFs, their functions, and ultimately, highlight the intimate connection of CAFs to virtually all of the hallmarks of cancer. We address the remarkable degree of functional diversity and phenotypic plasticity displayed by CAFs and strive to stratify CAF biology among different tumor types into practical functional groups. Finally, we summarize the status of recent and ongoing trials of CAF-directed therapies and contend that the paucity of trials resulting in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals thus far is a consequence of the failure to identify targets exclusive of pro-tumorigenic CAF phenotypes that are mechanistically linked to specific CAF functions. We believe that the development of a unified CAF nomenclature, the standardization of functional assays to assess the loss-of-function of CAF properties, and the establishment of rigorous definitions of CAF subpopulations and their mechanistic functions in cancer progression will be crucial to fully realize the promise of CAF-targeted therapies.
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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.