Anti-tumor Immune Responses: Mechanisms and Escape Mechanisms
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 5527
Special Issue Editors
2. Translational Skin Cancer Research, DKTK Site Essen, ED03, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Interests: tumor immunology; melanoma; non-melanoma skin cancer; Merkel cell carcinoma; immunotherapy; immune checkpoint inhibition; immune evasion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: Merkel cell carcinoma, immune checkpoint molecules, immune evasion, microRNA, autophagy, Merkel cell polyomavirus, gene regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The immune system is critical in controlling cancer. During the early stages of tumor development, immune cells can recognize and eliminate immunogenic cancer cells; in most cases, the cancer never becomes clinically evident. However, in cases where neoplastic disease is clinically evident, during the tumor evolution cancer cells developed different strategies to evade the immune surveillance. A non-exhaustive list of possible immune-escape mechanisms of cancer cells include the impairment of antigen processing and presentation, the overexpression of co-inhibitory ligands, and the secretion/release of immune-suppressive molecules. Some tumors may also recruit immunosuppressive immune cells or polarize cells infiltrating the tumor (e.g., regulatory T and B cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells and tumor-associated macrophages) to establish a microenvironment that represses anti-tumor immunity. Previous studies of these mechanisms allowed the development of therapeutic approaches such as immune-checkpoint inhibition (ICI) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Although these approaches have markedly improved patient survival in various cancer types, responses are heterogeneous, and many are not always durable. This resistance to immunotherapies can probably be explained by additional immunological mechanisms that also develop in the face of therapeutic interventions.
Thus, understanding the mechanisms of anti-tumor immune response and immune evasion is critical for selecting patients who are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy, and for developing effective therapeutic strategies to overcome primary and secondary resistance.
This Special Issue pursues this goal by bringing together high-quality contributions that highlight recent developments in immuno-oncology. These studies may be based on in vitro, preclinical in vivo, translational, or clinical work. Likewise, there are no restrictions on the tumor entities investigated or the type of immune response or its modulation, as our goal is to generate a comprehensive view.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Molecular mechanisms, translational and clinical research in tumor immunology;
- Modulation of adaptive and innate immune responses by immunotherapy;
- Biomarkers for predicting immunotherapy response;
- Mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy;
- Therapeutic approaches for overcoming resistance to immunotherapy.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen C. Becker
Dr. Weng-Onn Lui
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
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tumor immunity
- immune escape
- immunosurveillance
- immunoediting
- antigens
- immune-checkpoint blockade
- immunotherapy
