Summary: Cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) pro– and anti–pancreatic cancer functional dichotomy has been at the center of numerous studies. In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Helms and colleagues demonstrate that although pancreatic stellate cell–derived CAFs constitute a desmoplastic cell minority, these cells play a protumorigenic role via microenvironmental mechanomodulation.

See related article by Helms et al., p. 484.