Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Author Spotlight: Validating Cancer Therapy Responses with Desmoplastic Spheroid Models
Published on: September 27, 2024
Pancreatic cancer stroma: friend or foe?
1Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center and Pancreatic Cancer Signature Center, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
Abstract:
Pancreatic cancer desmoplasia is thought to confer biological aggressiveness. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Özdemir and colleagues and Rhim and colleagues demonstrate that targeting the stroma results in undifferentiated, aggressive pancreatic cancer that responds to checkpoint blockade or antiangiogenic therapy, uncovering a protective role by stroma in this cancer.
Related Concept Videos
The Tumor Microenvironment
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...

