Microenvironnement tumoral

Abstract

Owing to the phenomenal advances in molecular technology, the past few years have seen drastic improvements in the knowledge of tumor biology. Whilst efforts are still focused on the cancer cell, it is now clear that analysis of the tumor microenvironment plays a major role in the management of cancer. Known for years as the "stroma reaction", tumor microenvironment was commonly used by pathologists as helpful criteria to establish the diagnostic of histological subtypes. More recently however, research on tumor microenvironment (and immune response in particular) has provided numerous evidences to support a leading role in the assessment of cancer prognosis, and open new avenues in treatment of cancer patients. Prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers issued from this research will have to get through the validation process required by international consensus conferences before any implementation in clinical practice. © 2014 médecine/sciences- Inserm.