The prognostic impact of traditional Chinese medicine monomers on tumor-associated macrophages in non-small cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80%–85% of all lung malignancies and good diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC are critical to the increase of its survival rate. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) abundantly present in numerous cancer types, and the role of TAMs in tumor biology and their prognostic value in cancer become major topics of interest. After various stimulations in the tumor microenvironment, TAMs develop into a M1 (tumor-inhibitory) phenotype or M2 (tumor-promoting) phenotype. Recent studies show that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) monomers have markedly inhibitory actions for NSCLC through M1/M2 modulation. Due to the TCM monomers mainly covered five categories, i.e. terpenoids, flavonoids, polysaccharides, natural polyphenols, and alkaloids. Thus, we will discuss the regulation of TCM monomers on TAM involve in these five parts in this review. In addition, the potential role of TAMs as therapeutic targets will be discussed.