Many aspects of cancer can be explained utilizing well-defined ecological principles. Applying these principles to cancer, cancer cells can be considered an invasive species to a healthy organ ecosystem. In their capacity as ecosystem engineers, cancer cells release cytokines that recruit monocytes to the tumor and polarize them to M2-like macrophages that promote tumor growth. Macrophages, recruited by the cancer cells, act as a secondary invasive species. The ecosystem engineering functions of M2-macrophages in turn support and stimulate cancer cell survival and proliferation.
Results/Conclusions
The cooperative ecosystem engineering of both the primary invasive species of the cancer cell and the secondary invasive species of the M2-macrophage thus creates a vicious cycle of tumor promotion. Targeting a specific aspect of this tumor-promoting ecosystem engineering, such as blocking M2-TAM differentiation or blocking efferocytosis by M2-like macrophages, may improve the response to standard-of-care anti-cancer therapies. This strategy has the potential to redirect cooperative pro-tumor ecosystem engineering towards an anti-tumor ecosystem engineering strategy.