OnCo

The receptor that macrophages depend on; blocking it shrinks tenosynovial giant cell tumour (a CSF1-driven tumour) and depletes tumour-supporting macrophages, though the latter has not yet helped patients with common cancers. This dossier gathers the 1 product (1 approved), 0 trials, 7 pathways and 0 resistance routes in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.

Biology

Type III receptor tyrosine kinase for CSF1 and IL-34; controls differentiation, survival and function of monocytes, macrophages, osteoclasts and microglia.

Where it is found
  • Tenosynovial giant cell tumour (CSF1 translocation in neoplastic cells; CSF1R+ reactive mass)
  • Tumour-associated macrophages in most solid tumours
  • Glioblastoma microglia
  • Chronic GVHD macrophages
Class: kinase · Gene: CSF1R · Facts checked 2026-09-08 · Target page

Elsewhere: identifiers and databases

Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL ids

Products by modality and phase

Browse products →
ModalityApproved
Small molecule
1

No trial in the corpus names this target or one of its products.

Resistance routes that involve this target

Unaddressed routes →

The resistance atlas has no route that names this target.

Pathways where it is a node

Pathway-to-drug matrix →
  • Cold tumours: immune deserts and exclusion
    Node: Myeloid barrier · 6 druggable nodes

    Tumours come in three immune weathers: inflamed (T cells inside, checkpoint drugs work), excluded (T cells stuck at the edge), and desert (no T cells at all). Most common cancers are excluded or desert, and turning them 'hot' is the central problem of immunotherapy.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • Complement in cancer
    Node: C5a → MDSC, neutrophils · 3 druggable nodes

    Complement is a cascade of blood proteins that punches holes in things marked by antibodies and calls in inflammatory cells. Therapeutic antibodies such as rituximab use it to kill cancer cells; tumours defend themselves with shields (CD46, CD55, CD59), and the cascade's own by-products (C5a) can recruit the myeloid cells that protect the tumour.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • Intravasation & circulating tumour cells
    Node: TMEM doorway (macrophage) · 2 druggable nodes

    Getting into the bloodstream and surviving there is brutal: cells are ripped from their neighbours, battered by flow, and hunted by NK cells. Fewer than one in a thousand survive. The ones that do travel in clusters, wear a cloak of platelets, or ride with neutrophils. Liquid biopsies catch what is left.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • Myeloid suppression: TAMs, MDSCs & don't-eat-me signals
    Node: TAMs (CSF1R, TREM2) · 4 druggable nodes

    Tumours recruit the body's clean-up cells (macrophages and immature myeloid cells) and re-train them as bodyguards. They switch off T cells, build vessels, and, when a therapeutic antibody flags a cancer cell for eating, are told 'don't eat me' by CD47 on its surface.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • Nutrient competition & metabolic immunosuppression
    Node: Arginase (MDSC, TAM) · 4 druggable nodes

    Tumours and immune cells eat from the same plate. Cancer cells hoard glucose and glutamine, dump lactate and acid, and burn tryptophan and arginine into by-products that paralyse T cells. The tumour wins the food fight, and the immune system loses before it has fired a shot.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • The angiogenic switch & tumour vessels
    Node: TAMs, MDSCs (bypass) · 3 druggable nodes

    A tumour cannot grow beyond a couple of millimetres without its own blood supply. The 'switch' flips when the signals calling for new vessels (VEGF, FGF, angiopoietin) outweigh the ones holding them back (thrombospondin). The vessels that result are leaky and chaotic, which starves the tumour of oxygen, blocks drugs, and gives cancer cells a way out.

    Which nodes have drugs →
  • The pre-metastatic niche
    Node: MDSCs, immune suppression · 3 druggable nodes

    Before a single cancer cell arrives, the primary tumour sends parcels ahead: tiny vesicles (exosomes) and hormones that recruit bone-marrow cells to a distant organ and remodel it into fertile soil. By the time the seed lands, the bed is already made.

    Which nodes have drugs →

Companion diagnostics and assays

Assay registry →

No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.

Preclinical models

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No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.

No open questions recorded for this target yet. Suggest one.

Ideas and companies

Ideas that involve this target · 0
Companies with products against it · 1

Key papers and the live literature

Preprints →
Latest papers · live from Europe PMC
Open in Europe PMC

Query for this target: (TITLE:"CSF1R" OR ABSTRACT:"CSF1R") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about CSF1R, not a curated reading list.

Export

The dossier as machine-readable JSON: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/csf1r.json. Licence CC BY 4.0.