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Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Phagocytosis Assay for Apoptotic Cells in Drosophila Embryos
Published on: August 3, 2017
The battle within: cell death by phagocytosis in cancer
Lujia Zhou1, Shiying Fan1, Wenjie Zhang2
1Department of Clinical Medicine, Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225001, Jiangsu, China.
Abstract:
The process by which living cells are phagocytosed and digested to death is called cell death by phagocytosis, a term that has just recently been generalized and redefined. It is characterized by the phagocytosis of living cells and the cessation of cell death by phagocytosis. Phagocytosis of dead cells is a widely discussed issue in cancer, cell death by phagocytosis can stimulate phagocytosis and stimulate adaptive immunity in tumors, and at the same time, do not-eat-me signaling is an important site for cancer cells to evade recognition by phagocytes. Therefore, we discuss in this review cell death by phagocytosis occurring in cancer tissues and emphasize the difference between this new concept and the phagocytosis of dead tumor cells. Immediately thereafter, we describe the mechanisms by which cell death by phagocytosis occurs and how tumors escape phagocytosis. Finally, we summarize the potential clinical uses of cell death by phagocytosis in tumor therapy and strive to provide ideas for tumor therapy.
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