Un-LOX-ing tumor immune barriers.
In this issue of Developmental Cell, Zhang et al. report the identification of two transcriptionally distinct renal cell carcinoma tumor thrombus subtypes. The aggressive TT1 subtype is characterized by LOX-expressing cancer cells within an immunosuppressive microenvironment dominated by THBS2+ fibroblasts and GPNMB+ macrophages that exclude CD8+ T cells.