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Review
. 2017 Aug 15;16(1):137.
doi: 10.1186/s12943-017-0707-7.

Neutrophils in cancer: prognostic role and therapeutic strategies

Alberto Ocana  1 , Cristina Nieto-Jiménez  2 , Atanasio Pandiella  3 , Arnoud J Templeton  4
Affiliations
Review

Neutrophils in cancer: prognostic role and therapeutic strategies

Alberto Ocana et al. Mol Cancer. .

Abstract

Expression of high levels of immune cells including neutrophils has been associated with detrimental outcome in several solid tumors and new strategies to decrease their presence and activity are currently under clinical development. Here, we review some of the relevant literature of the role of neutrophils in different stages of the oncogenic process including tumor initiation, growth, proliferation or metastatic spreading and also focus on how neutrophil counts or the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio may be used as a prognostic and predictive biomarker. Strategies to avoid the deleterious effects of neutrophils in cancer and to reduce their activity are discussed. Examples for such strategies include inhibition of CXCR1 and CXCR2 to decrease migration of neutrophils to tumoral areas or the inhibition of granulocyte colony stimulating factor to decrease the amount of neutrophils which has shown efficacy in preclinical models.

Keywords: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio; Neutrophils; Prognosis; Target.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a. Mechanisms associated with the participation of neutrophils in the oncogenic process. Neutrophils are involved in various oncogenic processes such as tumor initiation, growth and proliferation, dissemination to other tissues, and formation of new blood vessels in the tumor. b. Therapeutic strategies to inhibit the oncogenic effect of neutrophils at different levels. Different compounds have been developed to target factors produced by the tumor and also to receptors present in neutrophils that favor the migration of neutrophils to the tumoral areas
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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