Two birds with one stone: Therapeutic targeting of IL1α signaling pathways in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the cancer-associated fibroblasts

In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Biffi and colleagues report that IL1 signaling cascades resulted in JAK/STAT activation and promoted an inflammatory cancer-associated fibroblast (iCAF) state, which contributed to the establishment of distinct fibroblast niches in the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) microenvironment to support the growth of PDAC cells. Furthermore, the investigators demonstrated that TGFβ signaling inhibited IL1R1 expression, antagonized IL1α responses, and promoted differentiation of CAFs into myofibroblasts; thus, IL1α signaling is an important therapeutic target for both PDAC cells and the iCAFs in the tumor microenvironment.