The microenvironment in mature B-cell malignancies: a target for new treatment strategies
Paper by Jan A. Burger indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 19636060, in Blood (2009), one of the most cited records naming an author with this name at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Overview
Despite major therapeutic advances, most mature B-cell malignancies remain incurable. Compelling evidence suggests that crosstalk with accessory stromal cells in specialized tissue microenvironments, such as the bone marrow and secondary lymphoid organs, favors disease progression by promoting malignant B-cell growth and drug resistance. Therefore, disrupting the crosstalk between malignant B cells and their milieu is an attractive novel strategy for treating selected mature B-cell malignancies. Here we summarize the current knowledge about the cellular and molecular interactions between neoplastic B lymphocytes and accessory cells that shape a supportive microenvironment, and the potential therapeutic targets that are emerging, together with the new problems they raise. We discuss clinically relevant aspects and provide an outlook into future biologically oriented therapeutic strategies. We anticipate a paradigm shift in the treatment of selected B-cell malignancies, moving from targeting primarily the malignant cells toward combining cytotoxic drugs with agents that interfere with the microenvironment's proactive role. Such approaches hopefully will help eliminating residual disease, thereby improving our current therapeutic efforts.
Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 19636060 (DOI 10.1182/blood-2009-06-225326). Its author list gives "Burger JA" with the affiliation "Department of Leukemia, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77230-1402, USA. jaburger@mdanderson.org", which names MD Anderson Cancer Center; that is how the record was matched to Jan A. Burger, and no figure has been checked by an editor.
One of the most cited papers Europe PMC returns for Jan A. Burger at MD Anderson Cancer Center, so it is a natural starting point for reading their work. The record was linked automatically from the author list and affiliation; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
- Matched to the person by surname, initials and an affiliation string naming the institution on the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.
- Two authors sharing a surname, initials and institution cannot be told apart by this method; the person's profile links are the place to confirm authorship.