The Dark Side of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Cutaneous Oncology: Roles, Expectations, and Potential Pitfalls.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) have well-established regenerative and immunomodulatory properties. For such reasons, ADSCs are currently under investigation for their use in the setting of both regenerative medicine and autoimmune diseases. As per dermatological disorders, mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based strategies represent potential therapeutic tools not only for chronic ulcers and wound healing, but also for immune-mediated dermatoses. However, a growing body of research has been focusing on the role of MSCs in human cancers, due to the potential oncological risk of using MSC-based strategies linked to their antiapoptotic, proangiogenic, and immunosuppressive properties. In the dermatological setting, ADSCs have shown not only to promote melanoma growth and invasiveness, but also to induce drug resistance. In contrast, genetically modified ADSCs have been demonstrated to efficiently target therapies at tumor sites, due to their migratory properties and their peculiar tropism for cancer microenvironment. The present review briefly summarizes the findings published so far on the use of ADSCs in the dermato-oncological setting, with the majority of data being available for melanoma.

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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