Hanging in the balance: mitochondrial uncoupling protein-2 and the tumor microenvironment

Tumor microenvironment is an ecosystem in which cancer initiation, progression and dissemination take place through complex cell-cell interactions, more or less successfully countered by innate and adaptive immunity of the host (1,2). Outcomes of anti-cancer immune responses greatly depend on recognition of tumor differentiation antigens and destruction of cancer cells by cytotoxic CD8+ T cells recruited into the tumor tissue and activated by dendritic cells.