Sarcoma response to targeted therapy dynamically polarizes tumor-associated macrophages

Abstract

In gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST ), the most common human sarcoma, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been found to be abundant and surprisingly M1-like, exhibiting antitumoral activities. However, TAMs switch to M2-like during the course of imatinib therapy, but upon drug resistance TAMs revert to M1-like. Therefore, the oncologic efficacy of TAM depletion may depend on tumor type and treatment status. ©2014 Landes Bioscience.