Gastrointestinal tract cancers, mainly including esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer, are among the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite the great improvements in earlier diagnosis and multidisciplinary cancer treatment (including endoscopic resection, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy), the long-term prognosis of patients with gastrointestinal tract cancers remains unsatisfactory. In recent decades, immunotherapy has gradually attracted attention due to the progressive insights into tumor immunology. However, immune evasion is very common in gastrointestinal cancers, which often leads to the failure and drug resistance of immunotherapy.
The tumor microenvironment is a dynamic, complex, and comprehensive system. The infiltrated immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, including T cells, B cells, tumor-associated macrophages, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and tumor-associated neutrophils, as well as their immune molecules play a pivotal role in the carcinogenesis and progression, and affect the response to immunotherapy. However, the immune microenvironment as well as its interactions with the tumor cells and implications for immunotherapy have largely remained unclear. Furthermore, cellular immunotherapy has shown promising results in hematological malignancies and some solid tumors, but relevant research remains vacant in gastrointestinal tract cancers.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a forum to advance research on the immune infiltration of gastrointestinal tract cancers as well as to explore novel cellular and molecular targets for immunotherapy, efficacy enhancement, and response prediction, to advance the understanding of the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal tract cancers and improve patient outcomes.
We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Reviews, Opinions, and Perspective articles including but not limited to the following themes:
1. Landscapes of the immune microenvironment in gastrointestinal tract cancers, including esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer, and functions of key immunes cells and molecules;
2. Novel methods to evaluate the level of immune infiltration in gastrointestinal tract cancers;
3. Molecular targets that could be potentially involved in immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors for efficacy enhancement, response prediction, and prognosis prediction in gastrointestinal tract cancer;
4. Application of cellular immunotherapy (including but not limited to chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, NK cell, dendritic cell, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes therapy) in gastrointestinal tract cancers.
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 the scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Gastrointestinal tract cancers, mainly including esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer, are among the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite the great improvements in earlier diagnosis and multidisciplinary cancer treatment (including endoscopic resection, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy), the long-term prognosis of patients with gastrointestinal tract cancers remains unsatisfactory. In recent decades, immunotherapy has gradually attracted attention due to the progressive insights into tumor immunology. However, immune evasion is very common in gastrointestinal cancers, which often leads to the failure and drug resistance of immunotherapy.
The tumor microenvironment is a dynamic, complex, and comprehensive system. The infiltrated immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, including T cells, B cells, tumor-associated macrophages, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and tumor-associated neutrophils, as well as their immune molecules play a pivotal role in the carcinogenesis and progression, and affect the response to immunotherapy. However, the immune microenvironment as well as its interactions with the tumor cells and implications for immunotherapy have largely remained unclear. Furthermore, cellular immunotherapy has shown promising results in hematological malignancies and some solid tumors, but relevant research remains vacant in gastrointestinal tract cancers.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a forum to advance research on the immune infiltration of gastrointestinal tract cancers as well as to explore novel cellular and molecular targets for immunotherapy, efficacy enhancement, and response prediction, to advance the understanding of the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal tract cancers and improve patient outcomes.
We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Reviews, Opinions, and Perspective articles including but not limited to the following themes:
1. Landscapes of the immune microenvironment in gastrointestinal tract cancers, including esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer, and functions of key immunes cells and molecules;
2. Novel methods to evaluate the level of immune infiltration in gastrointestinal tract cancers;
3. Molecular targets that could be potentially involved in immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors for efficacy enhancement, response prediction, and prognosis prediction in gastrointestinal tract cancer;
4. Application of cellular immunotherapy (including but not limited to chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, NK cell, dendritic cell, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes therapy) in gastrointestinal tract cancers.
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 the scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.