Macrophages in multiple myeloma

Fiona Feng:  Grade 10 student  at Ridley college, Sun Life Gene Medical Science Institute Cancer Research Program Student, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

Abstract Macrophages are one of the important cells constituting in the tumor microenvironment and are also a key driving factor in tumor progression. Increasing evidence suggests that the infiltration of macrophages is associated with a low overall survival rate in patients with multiple myeloma. In fact, macrophages can affect many pathways that are crucial for the occurrence and development of multiple myeloma, including the homing of malignant cells to the bone marrow, the growth and survival of tumor cells, drug resistance, angiogenesis, and immunosuppression. Therefore, therapeutic strategies targeting macrophages in the bone marrow microenvironment have certain prospects for clinical application. This review will discuss the recent findings on the functions elicited by macrophages throughout different stages of MM and provide a comprehensive evaluation of potential macrophage-targeted therapies. Keywords: Multiple myeloma (MM), Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), Tumor microenvironment (TME), Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), Therapeutic strategies