# Macrophage

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/macrophage/  
OnCo record `macrophage` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Large immune cells that engulf debris, microbes and dead cells and coordinate inflammation. Tumours recruit and retrain them: tumour-associated macrophages can make up half the cells in some tumours, where they feed blood-vessel growth and suppress T cells, and cancer cells display CD47 as a 'don't eat me' signal to avoid being engulfed.

## Summary

Macrophages can be pro-inflammatory and tumour-killing or tissue-repairing and immunosuppressive, and tumours push them towards the latter; tumour-associated macrophages can make up half the cells in some tumours, where they promote blood-vessel growth, suppress T cells, help cancer cells invade, and take up ADC payloads that contribute to side effects. Cancer cells display CD47, a 'don't eat me' signal, to stop macrophages engulfing them, and CD47 blockers are in trials. Efforts to reprogramme macrophages (CSF1R inhibitors, CD40 agonists, CAR-macrophages) have been harder to translate than T-cell approaches.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: macrophages; myeloid cells; myeloid cell; monocyte; monocytes; phagocyte; phagocytes; phagocytosis

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophage
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophage

## Connected records

- terms: [Cytokine](https://onco.cc/terms/cytokine/), [Immune system](https://onco.cc/terms/immune-system/), [Inflammation](https://onco.cc/terms/inflammation/), [Microenvironment and inflammation: tumours as wounds that do not heal](https://onco.cc/terms/microenvironment-inflammation-theory/), [Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)](https://onco.cc/terms/myeloid-derived-suppressor-cells/), [Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs)](https://onco.cc/terms/tumor-associated-macrophages/)
- pathways: [Tumour microenvironment (TME)](https://onco.cc/pathways/tumor-microenvironment/)
- technologies: [CAR-NK & CAR-macrophage](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-nk-macrophage/)
- targets: [CD24](https://onco.cc/targets/cd24/), [CD40](https://onco.cc/targets/cd40/), [CD47](https://onco.cc/targets/cd47/), [Interleukin-10 (IL10)](https://onco.cc/targets/il10/), [Siglec-10](https://onco.cc/targets/siglec10/)
- key papers: [Balkwill and Mantovani 2001: inflammation and cancer, back to Virchow?](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-balkwill-mantovani-inflammation-virchow-lancet-2001/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/macrophage.json