Stromal circuits involving tumor-associated macrophages and cancer-associated fibroblasts

Abstract

The tumor associated macrophages (TAM) represent one of most abundant subpopulations across several solid cancers and their number/frequency is associated with a poor clinical outcome. It has been clearly demonstrated that stromal cells, such as the cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs), may orchestrate TAM recruitment, survival and reprogramming. Today, single cell-RNA sequencing (sc-RNA seq) technologies allowed a more granular knowledge about TAMs and CAFs phenotypical and functional programs. In this mini-review we discuss the recent discoveries in the sc-RNA seq field focusing on TAM and CAF identity and their crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid cancers.