{"title":"Fibroblast activation protein and the tumour microenvironment: challenges and therapeutic opportunities.","authors":"Hsing Hwa Lee, Zeyad Al-Ogaili","doi":"10.3389/or.2025.1617487","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) has emerged as a critical player in cancer biology, particularly in shaping the tumour microenvironment (TME) and influencing immunotherapy outcomes. FAP-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play multiple roles in tumour progression and immune modulation. FAP, predominantly expressed on CAFs, contributes significantly to extracellular matrix remodelling, angiogenesis, and the creation of an immunosuppressive milieu. There are complex interactions between FAP-positive CAFs and various components of the immune system, highlighting their impact on T cell function and macrophage polarisation. This makes FAP a promising target for cancer therapy and potentially as a biomarker for immunotherapy treatment response. This review highlights the clinical challenges to target FAP and also addresses the heterogeneity of CAFs with the need for more refined characterisation to enhance therapeutic strategies and future research directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":19487,"journal":{"name":"Oncology Reviews","volume":"19 ","pages":"1617487"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12308159/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Oncology Reviews","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/or.2025.1617487","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) has emerged as a critical player in cancer biology, particularly in shaping the tumour microenvironment (TME) and influencing immunotherapy outcomes. FAP-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play multiple roles in tumour progression and immune modulation. FAP, predominantly expressed on CAFs, contributes significantly to extracellular matrix remodelling, angiogenesis, and the creation of an immunosuppressive milieu. There are complex interactions between FAP-positive CAFs and various components of the immune system, highlighting their impact on T cell function and macrophage polarisation. This makes FAP a promising target for cancer therapy and potentially as a biomarker for immunotherapy treatment response. This review highlights the clinical challenges to target FAP and also addresses the heterogeneity of CAFs with the need for more refined characterisation to enhance therapeutic strategies and future research directions.
期刊介绍：
Oncology Reviews is a quarterly peer-reviewed, international journal that publishes authoritative state-of-the-art reviews on preclinical and clinical aspects of oncology. The journal will provide up-to-date information on the latest achievements in different fields of oncology for both practising clinicians and basic researchers. Oncology Reviews aims at being international in scope and readership, as reflected also by its Editorial Board, gathering the world leading experts in both pre-clinical research and everyday clinical practice. The journal is open for publication of supplements, monothematic issues and for publishing abstracts of scientific meetings; conditions can be obtained from the Editor-in-Chief or the publisher.
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