Fig. 1From: Tumor microenvironment: barrier or opportunity towards effective cancer therapyTumor microenvironment (TME): TME is a complex ecosystem of cellular. niche, acidic niche, inflammation etc. Extracellular matrix (ECM), the major non-cellular and acellular components, and several specialized microenvironments such as hypoxic component, provides architectural support, and act as a store house for factors such as chemokines, cytokines, growth factors etc., required for continuous tumor transformation process. Cellular components consist of non-immune and immune cell populations. Non- immune cell types include tumor cell, cancer associated fibroblast (CAF), neuron, and endothelial cell (blood vessel) that helps in tumor invasion, progression, and metastasis. Immune cells within TME comprise of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), tumor- associated neutrophils (TANs), dendritic cell (DCs), regulatory T cell (Treg), B cell, Natural killer (NK) cell, and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). In immuno-competent conditions, CTL identifies and bring about tumor cell killing by releasing cytotoxic molecules such as granzyme-B, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), perforins etc. The figure is prepared by using BioRender software and publication license is obtainedBack to article page