Vitamin D regulates microbiome-dependent cancer immunity.

A role for vitamin D in immune modulation and in cancer has been suggested. In this work, we report that mice with increased availability of vitamin D display greater immune-dependent resistance to transplantable cancers and augmented responses to checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. Similarly, in humans, vitamin D-induced genes correlate with improved responses to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment as well as with immunity to cancer and increased overall survival.

Chemotherapy-induced COX-2 upregulation by cancer cells defines their inflammatory properties and limits the efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy combinations.

Cytotoxic therapies, besides directly inducing cancer cell death, can stimulate immune-dependent tumor growth control or paradoxically accelerate tumor progression. The underlying mechanisms dictating these opposing outcomes are poorly defined. Here, we show that cytotoxic therapy acutely upregulates cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression and prostaglandin E (PGE) production in cancer cells with pre-existing COX-2 activity.

The Adhesome Network: Key Components Shaping the Tumour Stroma.

Beyond the conventional perception of solid tumours as mere masses of cancer cells, advanced cancer research focuses on the complex contributions of tumour-associated host cells that are known as "tumour microenvironment" (TME). It has been long appreciated that the tumour stroma, composed mainly of blood vessels, cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells, together with the extracellular matrix (ECM), define the tumour architecture and influence cancer cell properties. Besides soluble cues, that mediate the crosstalk between tumour and stroma cells, cell adhesion to ECM arises as a crucial determinant in cancer progression.