Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor crosstalk with integrins, cadherins, and the tumor microenvironment: sticking points in understanding IGF1R function in cancer

Abstract

Despite decades of research presenting insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) as an attractive target for cancer therapy, IGF1R inhibitors ultimately failed in clinical trials. This was surprising due to the known cancer-promoting functions of IGF1R, including stimulation of cell invasion, proliferation, and survival. Discourse in the literature has acknowledged that a lack of patient stratification may have impacted the success of IGF1R-inhibitor trials. This argument alludes to the possibility that IGF1R function may be contingent on tumor type and cellular composition. Looking into the known roles of IGF1R, it becomes clear that this receptor interacts with a multitude of different proteins and even has tumor-suppressing functions. IGF1R is implicated in both cell–cell and cell–surface adhesion dynamics, and the effects of either IGF1R downregulation or pharmacological inhibition on cellular adhesion remain poorly understood. In turn, adhesion receptors modulate IGF1R signaling. In addition, our understanding of IGF1R function in tumor-associated immune and stromal cells is lacking, which could contribute to the overwhelming failure of IGF1R inhibitors in the clinic. In this review, we re-investigate clinical trial data to make connections between the failure of these drugs in human cancer patients and the understudied facets of IGF1R function. We describe lesser-known and potentially tumor-suppressive functions of IGF1R that include promoting cell–cell adhesion through E-cadherin, augmenting a pro-inflammatory macrophage phenotype, and stimulating B cells to produce immunoglobulins. We also highlight the important role of adhesion receptors in regulating IGF1R function, and we use this information to infer stratification criteria for selecting patients that might benefit from IGF1R inhibitors.