Vulnerabilities in the tumor and microenvironment in follicular lymphoma

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a paradigm of tumors that require the interaction between tumor and microenvironment cells to foster their development from initial steps to progression. Recent large-scale genome studies have uncovered multiple genetic alterations of FL that influence the microenvironment in two main directions, promoting tumor cell survival and proliferation and facilitating their evasion from immune antitumor signals. Understanding the crosstalk between tumor B-cells and the microenvironment will facilitate the identification of vulnerabilities that may offer novel targets for treatment of the patients. This review highlights recent findings showing the effect of common genetic mutations modulating the cell composition of the tumor microenvironment and the novel therapeutic perspectives to target these interactions.

Keywords: follicular lymphoma; genomic alterations; microenvironment; target therapies.