Personalized Immunotherapy for Cancers

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2024 | Viewed by 2011

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Interests: cancer therapy; immune checkpoint; immunotherapy; immune suppression
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E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Interests: exercise physiology; tumor–host interactions; tumor microenvironment; immuno-oncology; vascular biology; cardio-oncology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Immunotherapy revolutionized and renewed hope in cancer care and management. However, unlike many other therapies, immunotherapy is not tailored to individual needs, as we are still learning how to expand the benefits of immunotherapy. A path to the personalization of immunotherapy is to find how the disease and host interact and how the therapy disrupts their interaction. Therefore, we aim to answer the following questions within the scope of our Special Issue: (1) what are the metabolic features that impact the success of the immunotherapy (e.g., obesity, underlying morbidities, and …)? (2) What are the biomarkers that are linked to resistance? (3) Are cancer targets (genetic, epigenetic, and proteome) altered with the standard of care, and are we developing modalities that relate to the right target? (4) How can we model the disease simply and comprehensively (complex in vitro and appropriate preclinical models recapitulating patients)? Tapping into current knowledge bases to understand these questions may pave the way to personalized immunotherapy.

Dr. Zohreh Amoozgar
Dr. Igor Lucas Gomes-Santos
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • cancer immunotherapy
  • tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
  • neoantigens
  • adoptive cell transfer
  • gene expression profiling
  • personalized medicine
  • biomarkers
  • targeted therapy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2520 KiB  
Article
Predictive Signatures for Responses to Checkpoint Blockade in Small-Cell Lung Cancer in Second-Line Therapy Do Not Predict Responses in First-Line Patients
by Jeffrey C. Thompson, Caitlin Tilsed, Christiana Davis, Aasha Gupta, Bihui Melidosian, Chifei Sun, Michael E. Kallen, Cynthia Timmers, Corey J. Langer and Steven M. Albelda
Cancers 2024, 16(16), 2795; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16162795 - 8 Aug 2024
Viewed by 659
Abstract
Although immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for the treatment of extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) in combination with chemotherapy, relatively few patients have demonstrated durable clinical benefit (DCB) to these therapies. Biomarkers predicting responses are needed. Biopsies from 35 SCLC patients [...] Read more.
Although immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for the treatment of extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) in combination with chemotherapy, relatively few patients have demonstrated durable clinical benefit (DCB) to these therapies. Biomarkers predicting responses are needed. Biopsies from 35 SCLC patients treated with ICB were subjected to transcriptomic analysis; gene signatures were assessed for associations with responses. Twenty-one patients were treated with ICB in the first-line setting in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy; fourteen patients were treated in the second-line setting with ICB alone. DCB after ICB in SCLC in the second-line setting (3 of 14 patients) was associated with statistically higher transcriptomic levels of genes associated with inflammation (p = 0.003), antigen presentation machinery (p = 0.03), interferon responses (p < 0.05), and increased CD8 T cells (p = 0.02). In contrast, these gene signatures were not significantly different in the first-line setting. Our data suggest that responses to ICB in SCLC in the second-line setting can be predicted by the baseline inflammatory state of the tumor; however, this strong association with inflammation was not seen in the first-line setting. We postulate that chemotherapy alters the immune milieu allowing a response to ICB. Other biomarkers will be needed to predict responses in first-line therapy patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Personalized Immunotherapy for Cancers)
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17 pages, 3838 KiB  
Article
Contrasting Roles of Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Expression in Tumor and Stroma in Prognosis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
by Tomohiro Murakami, Eisuke Booka, Satoru Furuhashi, Yuki Sakai, Kenichi Sekimori, Ryoma Haneda, Mayu Fujihiro, Tomohiro Matsumoto, Yoshifumi Morita, Hirotoshi Kikuchi, Yoshihiro Hiramatsu, Satoshi Baba and Hiroya Takeuchi
Cancers 2024, 16(6), 1135; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16061135 - 13 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1052
Abstract
The assessment of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has become increasingly important with the rise of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, challenges persist, including subjective interpretation and the unclear significance of staining intensity, as well as contrasting [...] Read more.
The assessment of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has become increasingly important with the rise of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, challenges persist, including subjective interpretation and the unclear significance of staining intensity, as well as contrasting roles in tumoral and stromal regions. Our study enhances the understanding of PD-L1 in ESCCs by analyzing its expression in tumors and stroma with H-scores, highlighting its distinct clinicopathological impacts. In a retrospective cohort of 194 ESCC specimens from surgical resection, we quantified PD-L1 expression in tumoral and stromal compartments using H-scores, analyzing whole slide images with digital pathology analysis software. Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that higher PD-L1 expression is significantly associated with improved postoperative overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in both tumoral and stromal areas. Multivariable analysis identified high tumoral PD-L1 expression as an independent prognostic factor for prolonged OS and RFS (HR = 0.47, p = 0.007; HR = 0.54, p = 0.022, respectively). In a separate analysis, high stromal PD-L1 expression was found to correlate with less advanced pathological stages and a prolonged response to cytotoxic chemotherapy, with no similar correlation found for ICI treatment response. This study reveals PD-L1’s contrasting role in the ESCC tumor immune microenvironment, impacting prognosis, tumor stage, and treatment response. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Personalized Immunotherapy for Cancers)
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