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Immunometabolic gatekeeping: How tissue metabolism conditions tumor immunity
Naomi Iris van den Berg1, Matouš Elphick2, Kevin Mulder1
1The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK; Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, The University of Manchester, Wilmslow Road, Manchester M20 4BX, UK.
None:
Why the link between immune infiltration and tumor control varies so strongly across tissues remains unresolved. We propose the "immunometabolic gatekeeping" framework, whereby tissue-intrinsic metabolic activity and waste-handling capacity shape anti-tumour immunity. In high-flux tissues, metabolic stress impairs immune surveillance, decoupling infiltration from control and allowing tumor outgrowth. This framework explains cancer paradoxes-including T cell prognostic heterogeneity, hereditary and pediatric tumor tropisms, sex-biased tumor incidence, and cancer-resistant species-and suggests metabolism-aware strategies for cancer prevention and immunotherapy.
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