ReviewFrontiers in immunology2023
NK cell exhaustion in the tumor microenvironment.
Review in Frontiers in immunology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 89 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
- Bi-directional support of T lymphoma and a lymphoma-associated monocyte population involving Notch signaling in mice.Oncoimmunology · 2026Article
- TNF-α deficiency underlies NK cell dysfunction in colorectal cancer.Oncoimmunology · 2026Article
- NADPharmaceutical science advances · 2026Article
- Natural killer cell-derived extracellular vesicles reprogram cellular human immunity to enhance tumor cytotoxicity.Molecular therapy. Oncology · 2026Article
- Metabolic reprogramming via LDHB confers resistance to lactate-induced dysfunction and enhanced antitumor activity in hiPSC-Derived NK cells.Stem cell reports · 2026Article
- Engineered Natural Killer Cell Derived-Extracellular Vesicles: An Acellular Immunotherapy with Cytotoxic Effects in SNU-1079 Human Cholangiocarcinoma Cells.Molecular pharmaceutics · 2026Article
- Tumor-derived ITGB3 shapes a primed but functionally constrained NK cell state in breast cancer through HLA-E-NKG2A signaling.Molecular biology reports · 2026Article
- Integrated Bioinformatics and Experimental Validation Reveal the Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of SMDT1 in Thyroid Carcinoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- CAR-NK cell therapy for hematological malignancies.Blood advances · 2026Review
- Review
- Metabolic enzymes and immune receptors as emerging checkpoints in breast cancer: mechanisms, clinical trials, and therapeutic implications.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Modulation of Mu-Opioid Receptor Expression and Functional Impairment of Natural Killer Cells in Neuropathic Pain: Implications for Biomarker Discovery and Personalized Therapies.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Therapy-Driven Molecular Evolution of Bladder Cancer: Roles of Cellular Plasticity and Tumor Microenvironment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Harnessing CAR-NK cells against multiple myeloma: current landscape and future directions.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- A Multi-Omics Framework Reveals Tumor Heterogeneity and Predicts Therapeutic Targets in Renal Cell Carcinoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Review
- Integrative transcriptomic profiling reveals NK cell exhaustion-associated prognostic genes and identifies CSF1 as a key immunoregulatory target in hepatocellular carcinoma.Biology direct · 2026Article
- Radiogenomic landscape of the hallmarks of cancer.Biomarker research · 2026Review
39 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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Natural killer (NK) cells kill mutant cells through death receptors and cytotoxic granules, playing an essential role in controlling cancer progression. However, in the tumor microenvironment (TME), NK cells frequently exhibit an exhausted status, which impairs their immunosurveillance function and contributes to tumor immune evasion. Emerging studies are ongoing to reveal the properties and mechanisms of NK cell exhaustion in the TME. In this review, we will briefly introduce the maturation, localization, homeostasis, and cytotoxicity of NK cells. We will then summarize the current understanding of the main mechanisms underlying NK cell exhaustion in the TME in four aspects: dysregulation of inhibitory and activating signaling, tumor cell-derived factors, immunosuppressive cells, and metabolism and exhaustion. We will also discuss the therapeutic approaches currently being developed to reverse NK cell exhaustion and enhance NK cell cytotoxicity in the TME.
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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.