Role of the actin cytoskeleton in tumor escape to immune system and acquisition of tumor resistance to cytotoxic treatment. In Actin: Structure, functions and disease. (Book Chapter)

Cancer cell survival is a fundamental process essential for cancer related mortalities. This process could be related either to a defect in the immune system machinery or to an acquiring of survival properties by cancer cells allowing them to survive despite a functional immune system. How a cancer cell survives in an environment where competent immune cells are present remains an important question. Understanding basic mechanisms of tumor-host immune interactions will shed light on developing methods to eradicate tumor cell survival, to attenuate immunotherapy resistance and to develop targeted anti-cancer drugs. Actin and tubulin form highly versatile, dynamic polymers that can organize cytoplasmic organelles and intracellular compartments, define cell polarity, and generate both pushing and contractile forces. Therefore, it is not surprising that they are key players in many processes in cell biology. Accumulating evidence involve the actin cytoskeleton at the core of this question. Indeed, the cytoskeleton plays an essential role in regulating a plethora of molecular events that ultimately lead to death resistance by cancer cell. In this regard, cytoskeletal remodeling has been described to be responsible for the resistance of cancer cells to cytotoxic immune cell attack as well as in the activation of the attack by immune cells. In this chapter we focus on the role of the actin cytoskeleton in the processes of regulating T cell activity and evading T lymphocyte mediated killing events.