Cancer Immunotherapy: Chapter 31. Galectins: Key Players in the Tumor Microenvironment

Cancer Immunotherapy: Chapter 31. Galectins: Key Players in the Tumor Microenvironment
ISBN-10
0128059273
ISBN-13
9780128059272
Series
Cancer Immunotherapy
Category
Medical
Pages
684
Language
English
Published
2013-06-04
Publisher
Elsevier Inc. Chapters
Authors
Robert Kiss, Victoria Sundblad, Veronique Mathieu

Description

Galectins are glycan-binding proteins implicated in intracellular signaling, cell–cell communication, cellular proliferation and survival. These endogenous lectins have emerged as key players in the tumor microenvironment. They are expressed and released by different cell types, including tumor, stromal, endothelial and immune cells. Galectins critically influence tumor progression by modulating tumor cell migration, invasiveness, angiogenesis and antitumor immune responses. Intracellularly, galectins modulate survival and proliferation and they interact with a variety of signaling pathways. Given these extracellular and intracellular functions and their regulated expression at sites of tumor growth and metastasis, galectins have stimulated great interest as relevant biomarkers and novel targets in cancer therapy.

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