During the last few decades, immunotherapy has emerged as a revolutionary approach against cancers and dramatically changed the landscape of cancer treatment. Agents targeting immune checkpoints or pathways such as, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated molecule-4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1), and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) has been extensively studied and has become standard of care options in several malignancies.
In recent years, the range of immunotherapeutic approaches has extended beyond immune checkpoint inhibitors. New immune targeting strategies, such as use of chimeric monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates targeting cancerous cells, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to promote obliteration of malignant cells have shown remarkable potential. Innate immune targets such as toll-like receptors (TLRs), RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs) and stimulators of interferon genes (STING) have also been explored to counteract tumor-induced immunosuppression. Recent studies with the use of genetically modified viruses with oncolytic activity has exhibited great promise in destroying cancerous cells. Vaccine strategies against autologous or allogenic tumor peptide antigens, alone or in combination with other immunotherapeutic approaches, have also shown encouraging results in preclinical studies.
Although many of these strategies present great potential to boost the host immune system to control and eliminate various types of malignancies, the beneficial effects have been observed in only a small proportion of patients. Typical challenges in the field of cancer immunotherapy include inability to predict therapeutic efficacy, specificity of immune response in individual patients, limited durability of the immune response, lack of specific biomarkers and development of resistance to immunotherapies. Moreover, the genetic and genomic factors that modulate molecular interactions between the cancer cells and various immune cell types in the tumor microenvironment are still largely unknown. To overcome such challenges intensive research is warranted to (a) enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and molecular pathways that regulate the immune response to malignancies, (b) identify genetic biomarkers and therapeutic targets and (c) optimize clinical protocols to improve treatment efficacy. To strengthen the field of cancer immunotherapy more focused approach is needed to identify critical targets for immunotherapy and important genetic and genomic factors that influence therapeutic response.
This Research Topic will welcome Original Research, Review and Method papers, together with clinical studies, focusing on immunotherapy in:
· Hematological malignancies
· Solid tumors
· Virus-associated tumors
· Molecular profiling of genetic and epigenetic biomarkers to identify prognostic and therapeutic targets
· Identification of genetic, epigenetic and genomic factors that influence therapeutic response
· Approaches to enhance innate and/or adaptive immunity by advanced strategies including but not limited to CAR T-cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccine development, oncolytic viral therapy, CRISPR technology.
During the last few decades, immunotherapy has emerged as a revolutionary approach against cancers and dramatically changed the landscape of cancer treatment. Agents targeting immune checkpoints or pathways such as, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated molecule-4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1), and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) has been extensively studied and has become standard of care options in several malignancies.
In recent years, the range of immunotherapeutic approaches has extended beyond immune checkpoint inhibitors. New immune targeting strategies, such as use of chimeric monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates targeting cancerous cells, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to promote obliteration of malignant cells have shown remarkable potential. Innate immune targets such as toll-like receptors (TLRs), RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs) and stimulators of interferon genes (STING) have also been explored to counteract tumor-induced immunosuppression. Recent studies with the use of genetically modified viruses with oncolytic activity has exhibited great promise in destroying cancerous cells. Vaccine strategies against autologous or allogenic tumor peptide antigens, alone or in combination with other immunotherapeutic approaches, have also shown encouraging results in preclinical studies.
Although many of these strategies present great potential to boost the host immune system to control and eliminate various types of malignancies, the beneficial effects have been observed in only a small proportion of patients. Typical challenges in the field of cancer immunotherapy include inability to predict therapeutic efficacy, specificity of immune response in individual patients, limited durability of the immune response, lack of specific biomarkers and development of resistance to immunotherapies. Moreover, the genetic and genomic factors that modulate molecular interactions between the cancer cells and various immune cell types in the tumor microenvironment are still largely unknown. To overcome such challenges intensive research is warranted to (a) enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and molecular pathways that regulate the immune response to malignancies, (b) identify genetic biomarkers and therapeutic targets and (c) optimize clinical protocols to improve treatment efficacy. To strengthen the field of cancer immunotherapy more focused approach is needed to identify critical targets for immunotherapy and important genetic and genomic factors that influence therapeutic response.
This Research Topic will welcome Original Research, Review and Method papers, together with clinical studies, focusing on immunotherapy in:
· Hematological malignancies
· Solid tumors
· Virus-associated tumors
· Molecular profiling of genetic and epigenetic biomarkers to identify prognostic and therapeutic targets
· Identification of genetic, epigenetic and genomic factors that influence therapeutic response
· Approaches to enhance innate and/or adaptive immunity by advanced strategies including but not limited to CAR T-cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccine development, oncolytic viral therapy, CRISPR technology.
