肿瘤微环境中除了肿瘤细胞外，还存在多种类型的其他细胞，包括基质细胞、内皮细胞和各种免疫细胞（如CD4+和CD8+T细胞、树突状细胞、NK细胞、巨噬细胞、中性粒细胞等）。近年来研究发现，肿瘤相关中性粒细胞（tumor-associated neutrophils, TANs）在肿瘤发生和发展中发挥着重要的作用。TANs可以通过多种机制促进肿瘤的生长和转移，这些机制包括TANs释放的弹性蛋白酶促进肿瘤增殖和转移，TANs分泌基质金属蛋白酶促进肿瘤血管的生成，同时高度活化的TANs也可杀伤肿瘤细胞起抗肿瘤的作用。对TANs的深入研究为肿瘤免疫提供了新的认识，以TANs及其分泌的一些分子作为靶点来调控TANs的功能，可能成为干预肿瘤发生、发展的重要方法。

In addition to the cancer cells, there are many other cells in the tumor microenvironment, such as the stromal cells, endothelial cells, CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, NK cells, macrophages and neutrophils, etc. Recent studies have found that tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) play important roles in the development and progression of tumors. TANs can promote tumor development and metastasis through various mechanisms, such as TANs promoting tumor proliferation and metastasis by secreting elastase, promoting tumor angiogenesis by secreting matrix metalloproteinase, and highly activated TANs exerting anti-tumor activity by killing tumor cells. Further study on TANs casts new lights on immunotherapy of tumors; and using TANs and molecules secreted by TANs as targets may become an important strategy for inhibiting the development and progression of tumors.

国家自然科学基金资助项目（No.30872377）