Tumor-restraining fibroblasts emerge after chemotherapy specifically in responders.

In this issue of Cancer Cell, Ma et al. identify a neoadjuvant chemotherapy-induced population of PTGER3+ cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in patients with bladder cancer.1 These CAFs undergo lipid oxidation reprogramming and enhance CD8+ T cell function, facilitating tumor microenvironment remodeling and restraining tumor progression.