Neoplasms in the bone marrow niches: disturbance of the microecosystem

Increasing studies have revealed that the interaction between malignant cells and the microenvironment (so called niche) in the bone marrow can influence the development and progression of the hematopoietic malignancies. Here, we reviewed the current findings in the field, focusing the niche alterations in promoting the emergency of malignancies, in interfering with the blood reconstitution of normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and in protecting leukemic stem cells from therapy which causes disease relapse. We made efforts to discuss these aspects in view of a kind of disturbance of the microecosystem within BM and thus proposed some new concepts in therapeutics of blood malignancies.