Role of Macrophages in Solid Tumor Metabolism

Abstract

Cancer cells undergo several complex processes to grow and evolve. For their survival, they manipulate the entire system and acquire the ability to gain all the energy demands from the host system itself. Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) are macrophages abundantly present in the tumor micro environment (TME) and essentially plays a critical role in coordination with the tumor cells helping them to progress and metastasize. One of the key hallmarks in tumor cells is elevated metabolic processes such as glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial oxidation, and amino acid metabolism. Macrophages help cancer cells to achieve this metabolic demand through a series of signaling events including mTOR, Akt, and PI3K pathways. The M2-like phenotype of macrophages leads to the tumorous macrophage phenotype along with the tumor cells to support tumor growth through metabolic dysregulation. Focusing upon the area of macrophage-mediated tumor metabolism in solid tumors has been a new area that provides new effective targets to treat cancer. This chapter discusses the role of macrophages in tumor metabolism and cancer progression. Targeting TAMs in tumor microenvironment through metabolic axis could be a potential therapeutic option to control the solid tumor growth and propagation.