Cancer is a multi-faceted disease in which spontaneous mutation(s) in a cell leads to the growth and development of a malignant new organ that if left undisturbed will grow in size and lead to eventual death of the organism. During this process, multiple cell types are continuously releasing signaling molecules into the microenvironment, which results in a tangled web of communication that both attracts new cell types into and reshapes the tumor microenvironment as a whole. One prominent class of molecules, chemokines, bind to specific receptors and trigger directional, chemotactic movement in the receiving cell. Chemokines and their receptors have been demonstrated to be expressed by almost all cell types in the tumor microenvironment, including epithelial, immune, mesenchymal, endothelial, and other stromal cells. This results in chemokines playing multifaceted roles in facilitating context-dependent intercellular communications. Recent research has started to shed light on these ligands and receptors in a cancer-specific context, including cell-type specificity and drug targetability. In this review, we summarize the latest research with regards to chemokines in facilitating communication between different cell types in the tumor microenvironment.

癌症是一种多方面的疾病，其中细胞中的自发突变导致恶性新器官的生长和发育，如果不加干扰，该器官会增大并导致生物体最终死亡。在此过程中，多种细胞类型不断向微环境释放信号分子，从而形成一个错综复杂的通讯网络，既吸引新的细胞类型进入，又重塑整个肿瘤微环境。一类重要的分子，趋化因子，与特定受体结合并触发接收细胞中的定向趋化运动。趋化因子及其受体已被证明在肿瘤微环境中的几乎所有细胞类型中表达，包括上皮细胞、免疫细胞、间充质细胞、内皮细胞和其他基质细胞。这导致趋化因子在促进依赖于环境的细胞间通讯方面发挥多方面的作用。最近的研究已经开始阐明这些配体和受体在癌症特定背景下的情况，包括细胞类型特异性和药物靶向性。在这篇综述中，我们总结了有关趋化因子促进肿瘤微环境中不同细胞类型之间通讯的最新研究。