Anti-tumor efficacy of : Suppressing liver cancer by targeting tumor-associated macrophages.

Despite significant advances in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of liver cancer and the availability of novel pharmacotherapies, liver cancer remains the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Tumor relapse, resistance to current anti-cancer drugs, metastasis, and organ toxicity are the major challenges that prevent considerable improvements in patient survival and quality of life. (CB), an ancient Chinese medicinal drug, has been used to treat various pathologies, including stroke, convulsion, epilepsy, pain, and cancer. In this editorial, we discuss the research findings recently published by Huang on the therapeutic effects of CB in inhibiting the development of liver cancer. Utilizing the comprehensive transcriptomic analyses, experiments, and studies, the authors demonstrated that CB treatment inhibits the tumor-promoting M2 phenotype of tumor-associated macrophages downregulating Wnt pathway. While multiple studies have been performed to explore the molecular mechanisms regulated by CB this study uniquely shows its role in modulating the M2 phenotype of macrophages present within the tumor microenvironment. This study opens new avenues of future investigations aimed at investigating this drug's efficacy in various mouse models including the effects of combination therapy, and against drug-resistant tumors.