肿瘤转移是导致肿瘤临床治疗失败以及多数癌症患者死亡的主要原因，也是亟待解决的临床问题。肿瘤转移的机制包括新生血管形成、上皮间质转化、失巢凋亡抗性、细胞外基质降解及免疫逃逸等。近年来，越来越多的研究聚焦于肿瘤微环境（tumor microenvironment，TME）在肿瘤免疫抑制、远处转移、局部耐药和靶向治疗效应中的关键作用。TME是一个高度复杂的系统，主要由肿瘤细胞、浸润性免疫细胞（如巨噬细胞、髓源抑制细胞、树突状细胞和淋巴细胞）、癌相关基质细胞（如癌相关成纤维细胞（CAFs））、内皮细胞和脂肪细胞等组成，参与肿瘤发展的多个阶段，并与肿瘤患者的临床预后密切相关。因此，揭示肿瘤基因型、表型和免疫微环境的关系，肿瘤转移免疫微环境的分类，提高临床精准化免疫治疗尤为重要。
炎癌转化的临床及其效应机制研究
炎症被认为是机体对损伤或感染的一种局部保护反应，但长期或过度炎症状态可导致癌症，20%以上的癌症是由炎症引发而来。炎症环境驱动肿瘤发生、生长、发展和转化，肿瘤微环境内的细胞具有极强的可塑性，能够随着环境的变化发生表型和功能特征的改变。因此，我们致力于解析“炎-癌”转化的分子机制，筛查炎癌转化调控的关键节点，针对相关靶点进行中药有效组分的筛选，并结合临床研究，进行临床疗效的验证及在临床的转化应用，为中医药的精准治疗提供依据。
情志、代谢性疾病促进的肿瘤发生发展及其中西医结合防治
近年来，越来越多研究显示情志因素与肿瘤发生发展密切相关，不良情绪刺激可作用于下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴促进糖皮质激素大量释放，促进肿瘤进程。另有研究显示，昼夜节律紊乱诱发增生性、代谢性和免疫性疾病，促进肿瘤生长。此外，肥胖已经成为全球主要流行性疾病，同时其增加患脂肪肝，II型糖尿病的风险等，而这类代谢性疾病会增加癌症发生率。我们通过建立相关疾病动物模型（压力应激荷瘤小鼠模型、昼夜节律紊乱荷瘤小鼠模型及脂肪肝、糖尿病荷瘤小鼠模型）模拟疾病病理进展，并结合临床研究相关数据，揭示中西医结合在预防肿瘤发生、进展和转移的生物学机制，进一步发扬中西医结合在情志、昼夜节律及代谢相关疾病的治疗优势。
Mechanisms of tumor metastasis and immune microenvironment
Tumor metastasis is a major cause of clinical treatment failure and death in most cancer patients, and a clinical problem that needs to be addressed urgently.Mechanisms of tumor metastasis include neo angiogenesis, epithelial mesenchymal transformation, anoikis resistance, extracellular matrix degradation, and immune escape. The tumor microenvironment (TME) has received increasing attention due to its crucial roles in tumor immune suppression, distant metastasis, local resistance and the targeted therapy response. The TME is a highly complicated system mainly composed of tumor cells, infiltrating immune cells (such as macrophages, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, dendritic cells and lymphocytes), cancer-associated stromal cells (such as cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs)), endothelial cells and lipocytes, along with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and multiple signaling molecules. TME is involved in multiple stages of tumor development and is closely related to the clinical prognosis of tumor patients. Therefore, it is especially important to reveal the relationship between tumor genotype, phenotype and immune microenvironment, and the classification of tumor metastasis immune microenvironment to improve clinical precision immunotherapy.
Clinical and mechanistic studies of precancerous lesions
Inflammation is a local protective response of the body to injury or infection, but chronic or excessive inflammatory states can lead to cancer, and more than 20% of cancers are triggered by inflammation. The inflammatory environment drives tumorigenesis, growth, development and transformation, and cells within the tumor microenvironment are extremely plastic, capable of altering phenotypic and functional characteristics in response to changes in the environment. Therefore, we are committed to analyzing the molecular mechanism of inflammation-cancer transformation, screening the key nodes of the regulation of inflammation-cancer transformation, screening the effective components of Chinese medicine for relevant targets, and combining with clinical research to verify the clinical efficacy and translational application of Chinese medicine, so as to provide a basis for the precise treatment of Chinese medicine.
Oncogenesis and development of tumors by emotional and metabolic disorders and prevention and treatment by integrated medicine
In recent years, numerous studies have shown that emotional factors are closely related to the tumor progression,as adverse emotional stimuli can act on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to promote the release of large amounts of glucocorticoids.Other studies have shown that circadian disruption induce proliferative, metabolic and immune disorders and promote tumor growth. In addition, Obesity has become a major global pandemic, threatening human health, and at the same time it increases the risk of fatty liver and cancer. By establishing animal models of related diseases (chronic stress mouse model, circadian disruption mouse model and fatty liver, diabetes mouse model) to simulate the pathological progression of the diseases, and by combining relevant data from clinical studies, we reveal the biological mechanisms of the combination of Chinese and Western medicine in the prevention of tumorigenesis, progression and metastasis, and further develop the therapeutic advantages of the combination of Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of emotional and circadian disruption and metabolism related diseases.