AUTHOR=Evans Anthony , Costello Eithne TITLE=The role of inflammatory cells in fostering pancreatic cancer cell growth and invasion JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology VOLUME=3 YEAR=2012 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2012.00270 DOI=10.3389/fphys.2012.00270 ISSN=1664-042X ABSTRACT=

The pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) microenvironment accommodates a variety of cell types and a plethora of complex interactions between tumor cells, host cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Here we review the role of inflammatory cells, in particular mast cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, macrophages, T regulatory cells, T helper cells and neutrophils. The picture that emerges is that of a tumor microenvironment, in which the immune response is actively suppressed, and inflammatory cells contribute in a variety of ways to tumor progression.