间充质干细胞（MSCs）存在于许多组织中，在组织出现损伤时会迁移到受伤部位进行修复。而癌症可以被看作是"永远不会愈合的伤口"，在肿瘤微环境中MSCs会被持续募集成为肿瘤微环境的一部分。最近出现了一种肿瘤相关间充质干细胞（TA-MSCs），它可以激活肿瘤的发生，促进肿瘤的发展与转移。本文讨论了MSCs与TA-MSCs之间的关系；探讨对TA-MSCs的最新认识及其调节癌细胞生存、增殖、迁移与耐药能力。而且，讨论了把TA-MSCs作为癌症治疗上游或者下游的靶点或者用MSCs做载体来传递癌症因子将会发展为癌症治疗的新手段。

Mesenchymal stem cells exist in many tissues and are known to actively migrate to sites of tissue injury, where they participate in wound repair. Tumours can be considered "wounds that never heal" and, in response to cues from a tumour, MSCs are continuously recruited to and become integral components of the tumour microenvironment. Recently, it has become apparent that such tumour-associated MSCs (TA-MSCs) have an active role in tumour initiation, promotion, progression and metastasis. In this review, we discuss recent advances of association of the MSC and AT-MSC and address in our understanding of the role of TA-MSCs in regulating the survival, proliferation, migration and drug resistance of tumour cells. Moreover, we discuss therapeutic approaches that target TA-MSC upstream or downstream modulators or use MSCs as vehicles for the delivery of tumoricidal agents.