Ruth Scherz-Shouval: Together we can ask big questions

Summary: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are heterogeneous and play a major role in promoting immune evasion in solid cancers. They contribute to T cell exclusion and exhaustion, recruit myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and induce pro-tumoral phenotypic changes in macrophages and neutrophils. The different subsets of CAFs have distinct immune-regulatory effects, interact with different cell types, and may have opposing effects on tumor malignancy.

Summary: Tumors are initiated by mutations in cancer cells and progress through interactions with non-malignant cells of the tumor microenvironment. This study examines how different mutations in cancer cells affect the transcriptional rewiring of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in pancreatic cancer. The researchers find that BRCA mutations lead to an increase in a specific subset of immune-regulatory CAFs, mediated by activation of heat-shock factor 1.