Cell death in tumor microenvironment: an insight for exploiting novel therapeutic approaches

Wenxin Wang1,2,3, Tong Li1,2,3, Kui Wu4,5,6

  • 1BGI Genomics, Shenzhen, 518083, China.

Cell Death Discovery
|March 11, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Understanding cancer cell death resistance and tumor microenvironment (TME) dynamics is key for effective cancer therapies. Advanced sequencing technologies help explore cell death signaling for novel treatment strategies.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Immunology

Background:

  • Cell death is a critical process in tumor biology, targeted by cancer therapies.
  • Cancer cells can develop resistance to cell death, leading to therapeutic failure.
  • The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a complex role in regulating cell death and therapy response.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the interplay between cell death signaling and the TME in cancer.
  • To summarize pre-clinical drugs that induce cell death.
  • To review the application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in cancer death research and discuss future directions.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of studies on cell death, TME, and sequencing technologies in cancer.
  • Exploration of mechanisms of cancer cell death resistance.
  • Analysis of advances in single-cell sequencing for TME heterogeneity.

Main Results:

  • Cancer cell death resistance and TME dynamics are crucial for therapeutic outcomes.
  • Several pre-clinical drugs targeting cell death pathways have been identified.
  • NGS technologies offer powerful tools for dissecting TME complexity and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding cell death signaling within the TME is essential for developing effective cancer treatments.
  • Multi-omics approaches, particularly advanced sequencing, hold significant promise for identifying new cell death-targeted therapies.
  • Future research should focus on leveraging these technologies to personalize cancer treatment strategies.

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