Hematopoietic cells have well-documented roles in guiding the establishment and progression of cancer, with myeloid and lymphoid cells among the best-characterized in this setting. The role of erythroid cells in tumor biology has received less attention, but emerging evidence suggests that they too are involved. In this study, Sano and colleagues detail a series of multi-organ tumor-host interactions that result in increased erythropoietin production in the kidneys and subsequent expansion of immature red blood cell populations in mice. These cells harbor intact nuclei and markers of incomplete differentiation, as well as expression of multiple immunosuppressive markers including the immune checkpoint protein PD-L1. The authors noted that the immature erythroid cells localized to tumor tissue, where they exerted a pro-tumorigenic effect: blockade of erythropoietin with neutralizing antibodies ablated the induction of the tumor-responsive immature erythroid cells and impeded tumor growth. These observations support a functional role for erythroid cells in the...

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