Intratumorinen

Intratumorinen is a relatively informal term that has appeared in some oncology discussions and preprint literature to refer to entities or processes that occur within a tumor and influence its behavior. The term is not widely standardized and does not appear as a formal diagnostic category or widely recognized biological term in major databases.

Usage and scope: The word is used descriptively to encompass a range of intratumoral constituents, including cancer cells exhibiting intratumoral heterogeneity, stromal cells, immune cells, metabolites, signaling molecules, extracellular matrix components, and subcellular microdomains that operate inside the tumor mass. It is sometimes invoked to emphasize processes that are contained within the tumor rather than in surrounding tissue or systemic circulation.

Detection and study: Intratumorinen-related features are studied with histopathology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and omics approaches such as bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics, often combined with spatial profiling to map localization inside the tumor.

Relation to therapy: Understanding intratumorinen components may uncover biomarkers or therapeutic targets, particularly for strategies aiming to modify intratumoral signaling, immune suppression within tumors, or metabolic dependencies. However, due to lack of formal definition, researchers should clearly operationalize the term in their work and specify what is being referred to in their analyses.

See also: Tumor microenvironment, Intratumoral heterogeneity, Tumor metabolism, Spatial omics.