The pro-cancer and immunosuppressive activity of macrophage-transformed cancer-associated fibroblasts in oral squamous cell carcinoma

These results imply that macrophages can transform into CAFs via the activated smad3 pathway by TGFβ1 derived from tumor cells in OSCC, and MMT exerts protumoral and immunosuppressive functions in OSCC through the CXCL10 pathway. MMT may become a novel therapeutic target for the immunotherapy of OSCC.