Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Dec 30;16(1):196.
doi: 10.3390/cancers16010196.

TAMs and PD-1 Networking in Gastric Cancer: A Review of the Literature

Melina Yerolatsite  1   2 , Nanteznta Torounidou  1   2 , Aristeidis Gogadis  1   2 , Fani Kapoulitsa  1   2 , Panagiotis Ntellas  1 , Evangeli Lampri  3 , Maria Tolia  4 , Anna Batistatou  3 , Konstantinos Katsanos  5 , Davide Mauri  1   2
Affiliations
Review

TAMs and PD-1 Networking in Gastric Cancer: A Review of the Literature

Melina Yerolatsite et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common and aggressive types of cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have proven effective in treating various types of cancer. The use of ICIs in GC patients is currently an area of ongoing research. The tumor microenvironment (TME) also seems to play a crucial role in cancer progression. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are the most abundant population in the TME. TAMs are capable of displaying programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) on their surface and can form a ligand with programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), which is found on the surface of cancer cells. Therefore, it is expected that TAMs may significantly influence the immune response related to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Aim of the study: Understanding the role of TAMs and PD-1/PD-L1 networking in GC.

Methods: A systematic review of published data was performed using MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, and Cochrane databases. We retrieved articles investigating the co-existence of TAMs and PD-1 in GC and the prognosis of patients expressing high levels of PD-1+ TAMs.

Results: Ten articles with a total of 2277 patients were included in the systematic review. The examined data suggest that the expression of PD-L1 has a positive correlation with the infiltration of TAMs and that patients who express high levels of PD-1+ TAMs may have a worse prognosis than those who express low levels of PD-1+ TAMs.

Conclusions: TAMs play a pivotal role in the regulation of PD-1/PD-L1 networking and the progression of GC cells. Nevertheless, additional studies are needed to better define the role of TAMs and PD-1/PD-L1 networking in GC.

Keywords: PD-1/PD-L1; gastric cancer; immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs); tumor microenvironment (TME); tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(left): Gastric adenocarcinoma, Hematoxylin and eosin (H+E) × 200, (right): Gastric adenocarcinoma, PD-L1 immunostaining (DAKO), DAB × 200.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart depicting the search strategy followed in our analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. International Agency for Research on Cancer. World Health Organization The Global Cancer Observatory. Stomach 2020. [(accessed on 10 December 2023)]. Available online: https://www.wcrf.org/
    1. González C.A., Agudo A. Chapter 1-Epidemiology, Risk Factors and Pathogenesis, ESMO Gastrointestinal Tract Tumours 2021. [(accessed on 12 December 2023)]. Available online: https://oncologypro.esmo.org.
    1. Rihawi K., Ricci A.D., Rizzo A., Brocchi S., Marasco G., Pastore L.V., Lorena F., Llimpe R., Golfieri R. Tumor-Associated Macrophages and Inflammatory Microenvironment in Gastric Cancer: Novel Translational Implications. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021;22:3805. doi: 10.3390/ijms22083805. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Taieb J., Bennouna J., Llorca F.P., Basile D., Samalin E., Zaanan A. Treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma: A rapidly evolving landscape. Eur. J. Cancer. 2023;195:113370. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2023.113370. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Guan W.L., He Y., Xu R.H. Gastric cancer treatment: Recent progress and future perspectives. J. Hematol. Oncol. 2023;16:57. doi: 10.1186/s13045-023-01451-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed