This Research Topic is the second volume of the “Tertiary Lymphoid Structures (TLS) in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment” Community Series. Please see Volume I here

Cancer has become the most common disease worldwide. With their extremely aggressive nature of growth, many cancer types portend dismal 5-year survival rates. Chemotherapy, as the conventional treatment option, is the mainstay of treatment for these malignancies, and while some patients derive remarkable clinical response, ultimately chemoresistance prevails. This resistance highlights the self-renewal of tumor cells and reflects its notorious capacity to mediate a microenvironment that is tumor protective. Recently, immunotherapy achieved great successes in tumors with abundant lymphocytes influx, such as melanoma and lung cancer. But, none of the immunotherapeutic regimens have been effective in immune-privileged cancers, reflecting an immune suppressive microenvironment that is lack of immune cell infiltration along with the tumor initiation, development, and progression, as known as ‘cold’ tumor.

Of note, as a unique immune property in tumor microenvironment of multiple cancer types, the tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) were found in biopsies and resected tumor tissues after the treatment of immune checkpoint inhibitors and were correlated with clinical response and improved prognoses in patients undergoing cancer immunotherapy. However, we will have to take the consideration of conflict observations that the TLS characteristics in different tumor types showed remarkable difference with completely opposite impact on patients’ survival, for example in kidney cancer vs. bladder cancer. Therefore, the formation and exact function of this structure are largely unknown and deserved further exploration in all cancer types.

This research topic aims at orchestrating the recent advancement on basic research or clinical trials targeting the tumor microenvironment of all cancers with an emphasis of tertiary lymphoid structures. Scientific hypothesis and validation of TLS formation related to cancer immunotherapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and target therapy can be included. We welcome submission of original research, reviews, mini-reviews, brief research reports and case reports. The submission may include the following themes, but is not limited to them:
--TLS surrounding stroma
--chemotaxis related to TLS
--Follicular helper T cells (Tfh)
--Tumor-resident memory T cells (Trm)
--Germinal center
--Maturity and spatial distribution of TLS.

Please note that manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this Research Topic.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Community Series in Tertiary Lymphoid Structures (TLS) in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment: Volume II