Studies have shown that a large number of immune cells infiltrate in the microenvironment of hepatobiliary malignant tumors, and play an important role in immune surveillance and immune clearance of these tumors. However, hepatobiliary malignancies occur in the immune tolerance niche. The hepatobiliary system has a variety of mechanisms to inhibit unnecessary immune activation of antigens and bacteria transmitted through the portal vein system, including the upregulation of immune checkpoints, such as procedural Death-1 (PD-1), secretes exosomes and cytokines. The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) developed based on these known approaches has been verified in a variety of cancers including liver cancer and GBC. However, patients with hepatobiliary malignancies only have an objective response rate (ORR) of 15% to 17% to the above treatments, demonstrating a median OS of 16.4 months and 13.9 months, respectively, showing an exact but very limited effect. Researchers have tried to predict the sensitivity of treatment based on the expression of autoimmune checkpoint proteins and target secretion based on exosomes, as well as the degree of infiltration of T cells and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME). At the same time, the combined application of two kinds of ICIs, ICIs and tyrosine kinase inhibitors and anti-VEGF is considered to have great prospects for improving the effect of immunotherapy, but the progress in this field is still not satisfactory. The mechanism underlying the immune escape in the tumor microenvironment is not fully understood. More precise evidence to uncover the mechanism by which immune checkpoint inhibitors are highly selective for hepatobiliary malignancies remains to be discovered.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a high-level forum for more research on the immune mechanism and treatment of hepatobiliary malignant tumors to further clarify how tumor cells regulate the immune response of the tumor microenvironment, the improvement of existing immunotherapy methods, and the exploration of potential immunotherapy targets and the prediction of tumor immune response.
We welcome the submissions of Original Research and Review on the sub-topics below:
• The characteristics of the immune microenvironment of malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and the mechanism of tumor immune escape
• Screening of sensitive populations of immunotherapy such as ICI among patients with malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and discussion on improvement of prognostic efficacy
• Identification of new immunotherapy targets for malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and exploration of molecular mechanisms
*NOTE: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation are considered out of the scope of this Research Topic.
Studies have shown that a large number of immune cells infiltrate in the microenvironment of hepatobiliary malignant tumors, and play an important role in immune surveillance and immune clearance of these tumors. However, hepatobiliary malignancies occur in the immune tolerance niche. The hepatobiliary system has a variety of mechanisms to inhibit unnecessary immune activation of antigens and bacteria transmitted through the portal vein system, including the upregulation of immune checkpoints, such as procedural Death-1 (PD-1), secretes exosomes and cytokines. The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) developed based on these known approaches has been verified in a variety of cancers including liver cancer and GBC. However, patients with hepatobiliary malignancies only have an objective response rate (ORR) of 15% to 17% to the above treatments, demonstrating a median OS of 16.4 months and 13.9 months, respectively, showing an exact but very limited effect. Researchers have tried to predict the sensitivity of treatment based on the expression of autoimmune checkpoint proteins and target secretion based on exosomes, as well as the degree of infiltration of T cells and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME). At the same time, the combined application of two kinds of ICIs, ICIs and tyrosine kinase inhibitors and anti-VEGF is considered to have great prospects for improving the effect of immunotherapy, but the progress in this field is still not satisfactory. The mechanism underlying the immune escape in the tumor microenvironment is not fully understood. More precise evidence to uncover the mechanism by which immune checkpoint inhibitors are highly selective for hepatobiliary malignancies remains to be discovered.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a high-level forum for more research on the immune mechanism and treatment of hepatobiliary malignant tumors to further clarify how tumor cells regulate the immune response of the tumor microenvironment, the improvement of existing immunotherapy methods, and the exploration of potential immunotherapy targets and the prediction of tumor immune response.
We welcome the submissions of Original Research and Review on the sub-topics below:
• The characteristics of the immune microenvironment of malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and the mechanism of tumor immune escape
• Screening of sensitive populations of immunotherapy such as ICI among patients with malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and discussion on improvement of prognostic efficacy
• Identification of new immunotherapy targets for malignant tumors of the hepatobiliary system and exploration of molecular mechanisms
*NOTE: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation are considered out of the scope of this Research Topic.
