Targeting Aggressive Fibroblasts to Enhance the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Co-defined by CAFs and infiltrating immune cells, the prognostic stroma signature is clinically relevant in a subset of human PDAC. This is the patient population which may benefit from future anti-stroma or anti-CAFs therapies. To consider CAF heterogeneity is crucial for designing anti-stroma studies. Here, reliable and traceable subtype-specific markers for CAFs are urgently needed to dissect the biological impact of CAF heterogeneity on PDAC development spatiotemporally. Given the significant contribution of CAFs to immunosuppressive microenvironment of PDAC, it is conceivable to combine anti-CAFs therapy with immunotherapy. To implement a CAF-subtype specific therapy is crucially important to improve the effectiveness of current treatments including chemotherapies and immunotherapy.