Suzuki J, Aokage K, Neri S, et al. - Researchers sought to determine if tumor-promoting PDPN⁺ (podoplanin) CAFs (cancer-associated fibroblasts) contribute to the immunosuppressive microenvironment in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC). They compared gene expression profiles of immunosuppressive cytokines between a PDPN-high group and a PDPN-low group using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) microarray lung SqCC data (n = 484). A significantly higher expression of interleukin (IL)- 1A, IL-1B, IL-6, IL-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, colony stimulating factor 1, fibroblast growth factor 2, galectin 1 ( LGALS1), platelet derived growth factor subunit A (PDGFA), PDGFB, and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFB1) was detected in the PDPN-high group vs the PDPN-low group by analyzing TCGA database. Overall, PDPN ⁺ CAFs exhibited higher expression of TGFB1 and were found to be related to CD204 ⁺ tumor-associated macrophage infiltration in stage-I lung SqCC, indicating that an association existed between PDPN ⁺ CAFs and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.