Immunotherapy has emerged as a therapeutic pillar strategy for cancers in the past few years. One of the most critical problems that currently limit the further development of this field is that resistance to the immunotherapy treatment exists in some patients and such patients could not be predictively discriminated against in advance.
Immunotherapy resistance could be caused by several mechanisms. On one hand, intact T cell function is necessary for the success of T cell-based immunotherapy including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. T cell exhausting, abnormal cytotoxicity, and proliferate inability could lead to adoptive transferred cell-dependent resistance. On the other hand, immunosuppressive cells and molecules in the immune microenvironment play a key role in microenvironment-dependent resistance in solid tumors. Moreover, tumor-intrinsic signaling could also contribute to explaining immune exclusion and escape. Finally, crosstalk exists in these resistance mechanisms. Hence, it is very important to understand CAR-T immunotherapy resistance mechanisms from different perspectives such as tumor cells, immune microenvironment, and adoptive transferred CAR T-cells. Strategies and biomarkers that could help to predict the short- and long-term efficacy of cancer immunotherapy are also of great clinical need.
In this Research Topic, we aim to provide a forum to advance CAR T-cell immunotherapy research for cancer. This topic focuses on mechanisms that underline CAR T immunotherapy resistance as well as predictive biomarkers that enable advanced selection of patients who might obtain the greatest benefits from CAR-T immunotherapy treatment and exclusion of patients who are unlikely to achieve the best response. Besides, research on strategies targeting immunotherapy resistance is also interested here.
We welcome the submissions of Original Research and Review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following bullet points:
1) Mechanisms and pathways that regulate the immune system’s response to hematological malignancies; Cellular and molecular mechanisms of CAR-T immunotherapy resistance and immune escape.
2) Immunosuppressive biology of lymphoma and other solid tumors. Cell-cell interaction and cell neighborhood analysis between immunocytes and immunosuppressive cells; Mechanisms of decrease in effective immunocytes infiltration and function as well as the accumulation of immunosuppressive cells in the immune microenvironment.
3) Multi-omics studies of tumor immune microenvironment.
4) Effective strategies to evaluate the function of T cells and subsequent products; Biomarkers that could predict the short- and long-term efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy.
5) Tumor-specific antigens (TSAs)-targeting studies; Research on the enhancement of TSA-specific T-cell reactivity.
6) Strategies to restore effective antitumor immune surveillance; Immune checkpoint blocker-targeting combination therapies.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Immunotherapy has emerged as a therapeutic pillar strategy for cancers in the past few years. One of the most critical problems that currently limit the further development of this field is that resistance to the immunotherapy treatment exists in some patients and such patients could not be predictively discriminated against in advance.
Immunotherapy resistance could be caused by several mechanisms. On one hand, intact T cell function is necessary for the success of T cell-based immunotherapy including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. T cell exhausting, abnormal cytotoxicity, and proliferate inability could lead to adoptive transferred cell-dependent resistance. On the other hand, immunosuppressive cells and molecules in the immune microenvironment play a key role in microenvironment-dependent resistance in solid tumors. Moreover, tumor-intrinsic signaling could also contribute to explaining immune exclusion and escape. Finally, crosstalk exists in these resistance mechanisms. Hence, it is very important to understand CAR-T immunotherapy resistance mechanisms from different perspectives such as tumor cells, immune microenvironment, and adoptive transferred CAR T-cells. Strategies and biomarkers that could help to predict the short- and long-term efficacy of cancer immunotherapy are also of great clinical need.
In this Research Topic, we aim to provide a forum to advance CAR T-cell immunotherapy research for cancer. This topic focuses on mechanisms that underline CAR T immunotherapy resistance as well as predictive biomarkers that enable advanced selection of patients who might obtain the greatest benefits from CAR-T immunotherapy treatment and exclusion of patients who are unlikely to achieve the best response. Besides, research on strategies targeting immunotherapy resistance is also interested here.
We welcome the submissions of Original Research and Review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following bullet points:
1) Mechanisms and pathways that regulate the immune system’s response to hematological malignancies; Cellular and molecular mechanisms of CAR-T immunotherapy resistance and immune escape.
2) Immunosuppressive biology of lymphoma and other solid tumors. Cell-cell interaction and cell neighborhood analysis between immunocytes and immunosuppressive cells; Mechanisms of decrease in effective immunocytes infiltration and function as well as the accumulation of immunosuppressive cells in the immune microenvironment.
3) Multi-omics studies of tumor immune microenvironment.
4) Effective strategies to evaluate the function of T cells and subsequent products; Biomarkers that could predict the short- and long-term efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy.
5) Tumor-specific antigens (TSAs)-targeting studies; Research on the enhancement of TSA-specific T-cell reactivity.
6) Strategies to restore effective antitumor immune surveillance; Immune checkpoint blocker-targeting combination therapies.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.