Abstract:
Cancer therapeutics have evolved more significantly during the last two decades with increasing focus on precision medicine.
In principle this involves targeted therapies tailored to patients’ cancer-specific molecular attributes. It includes a repertoire
of immunomodulating, and apoptotic agents added to cytotoxic chemotherapy, to increase effectiveness. Tumor Associated
Macrophages (TAMs) are an interesting potential targets for expanding these therapies. These represent a spectrum of
subtypes with anti-inflammatory M1 and pro-tumor M2 being the predominant among all. A large number of studies have
established their central role in modulating the tumor microenvironment (TME) and contributing to tumor initiation, and
progression. Potential therapeutic strategies that modulate TAMs reduce or block monocyte recruitment, induce apoptosis
of TAMs, re-educate TAMs from pro-tumor M2 to anti-tumor M1, among others. This review takes a detailed look at this
evolving landscape.