Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), essential components of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME), undergo metabolic reprogramming as part of functional adaptation. Tumor cells modulate TAMs through multiple mechanisms, including metabolic cross-feeding, cytokine production, extracellular vesicles, tumor-derived proteins (such as GRP78) and pathogen-associated patterns (such as Lipopolysaccharide) signaling mediators. In turn, metabolic alterations in TAMs fine-tune TAM function via intricate signaling networks with outcomes that vary across cancer types. These functional and phenotypic shifts enable TAMs to influence malignant cells and other TIME components, such as T cells, NK cells, and fibroblasts, through the secretion of inflammatory factors and changes in surface marker expression. This process establishes an extensive network of interconnected cellular crosstalk. In this review the metabolic alterations-intracellular signaling-TAM biology axis is linked to cancer progression contributions and the implications for immunotherapy across diverse malignancies. Building on these insights, current preclinical and clinical studies with a focus on TAMs were surveyed and the advantages and challenges of TAM-targeted therapeutic strategies were systematically evaluated. We anticipate that these perspectives will spur further investigation into TAM-specific immune targets and accelerate the development of next-generation cancer immunotherapies.
Zhao et al. (2026) studied this question.