The immune-network in thyroid cancer microenvironment

Cancer immune surveillance is a host protection process to maintain cell homeostasis and to inhibit tumorigenesis. In the last decades, it has been shown an association between thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid cancer (TC), involving multiple components of the immune system, even if the exact mechanism at its basis is still unknown. Within tumor microenvironment (TME), cells of the adaptive (i.e. lymphocytes) and of the innate (i.e. neutrophils, macrophages, and mast cells) immune responses are connected with endothelial cells, epithelial cancer cells, and fibroblasts, through cytokines, chemokines, and adipocytokines. Oncogenes related to the different subtypes of TC promote their proliferative effect on the TME, under the influence of transcriptional regulators (i.e. NF-kB, MAPK, and PI3K/Akt). This issue focus on the molecular pattern of chemokines and cytokines that might explain the involvement of the immune system in TC initiation and progression, and on TC related inflammation as a target for diagnostic procedures and new therapeutical approaches.

28/06/2025