reviewInternational Journal of CancerFeb 8, 2019HYBRID OA

In search of definitions: Cancer‐associated fibroblasts and their markers

University of Luxembourg

PubMed
Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

The tumor microenvironment has been identified as one of the driving factors of tumor progression and invasion. Inside this microenvironment, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a type of perpetually activated fibroblasts, have been implicated to have a strong tumor-modulating effect and play a key role in areas such as drug resistance. Identification of CAFs has typically been carried based on the expression of various "CAF markers", such as fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP) and alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA), which separates them from the larger pool of fibroblasts present in the body. However, as outlined in this Review, the expression of various commonly used fibroblast markers is extremely…

Citation impact

735
total citations
FWCI
27.36
Percentile
100%
References
115
Citations per year

Authors

5

Topics & keywords

Keywords
  • Cancer
  • Biology
  • Pathology
  • Computational biology
  • Cancer research
  • Medicine
  • Oncology
  • Genetics
UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Good health and well-being
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