Hypoxic Stress: A Key Regulator of the Antitumor Cytotoxic Response Linking Immune Resistance to Immune Suppression

The tumor microenvironment is a complex network of tumor cells, immune cells, stromal cells and extracellular matrix accomplishing proliferation, migration, and dissemination of tumor cells.

The reactivity of the immune system towards the growing tumor determines its capacity to reject the tumor, but this reactivity is increasingly appearing to be critically dependent on tumor microenvironmental factors. These factors include secreted molecules, type of infiltrating cells, and metabolic component such as hypoxia. Microenvironmental hypoxia is a prominent feature of solid tumors and is involved in fostering the neoplastic process and in modulation of immune reactivity. It results from inadequacies between the tumor microcirculation and the oxygen demands of the growing tumor mass, which leads to a lowering of oxygen partial pressure and a metabolic switch towards glycolysis. Read more>>>>>>>>>>>