The Hematopoietic Niche as a Cancer Sanctuary: Bone Marrow, Tumour Crosstalk, and Immune Evasion

The bone marrow niche is the main site of haematopoiesis and the constant renewal of blood and immune cells from hematopoietic stem cells throughout our lives. This microenvironment is a balance of blood and niche cells, such as osteoblasts, adipocytes, and endothelial cells, able to maintain and support our hematopoietic stem cells by regulating oxygen gradients, nutrients, chemokines, cytokines and signalling pathways. Issues arise when cancer cells, either hematopoietic or metastatic solid cancer cells, hijack this niche. These cancer cells use the niche to drive immune invasion, reduce the effect of chemotherapy, and improve tumour growth. This process also disrupts the bone marrow and inhibits normal hemopoiesis, causing anaemia and cytopenia and affect bone remodelling processes. The challenge is to understand how treat these cancer cells whilst preserving haematopoiesis. Or how effective replacing the immune system is after cancer depletion. As more patients are surviving cancer therapies, the goal shifts to improving the patient quality of life and preserving a working immune system is critical. This topic will examine the interactions with the cancer cell and the bone marrow niche, how cancer cells migrate and engraft into this niche, whilst avoiding the immune system. This topic will also review current clinical therapies to target cancer cell embedded in the bone marrow. Topic editors: Bianca Nowlan, Kavita Bisht Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84341/the-hematopoietic-niche-as-a-cancer-sanctuary-bone-marrow-tumour-crosstalk-and-immune-evasion