Hypoxia-driven immunosuppression contributes to the pre-metastatic niche

Primary tumor cells create favorable microenvironments in secondary organs, termed pre-metastatic niches, that promote the formation of metastases. Using immune competent syngenic breast cancer mouse models, we have recently demonstrated that factors secreted by hypoxic tumor cells condition pre-metastatic niches by recruiting CD11b⁺/Ly6C^med/Ly6G⁺ myeloid cells and suppressing natural killer cell functions.