Reshaping cancer therapy: disrupting the tumor microenvironment in solid tumors

Since the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors, very few advances have been made in the field of solid oncology therapeutics. This is due to the intrinsic features of these malignancies, characterized by being highly heterogeneous and therefore very prone to resistance.

The tumor microenvironment pose many barriers including immune cell movement and infiltration difficulties, metabolic and hypoxic limitations, stromal barriers, and the presence of inhibitory cytokines, immunological checkpoints, and regulatory cell populations. All these systems work together to foster disease progression, resistance to treatment and immune evasion. Nevertheless, multiple strategies are in development to overcome multiple of these obstacles.

This Research Topic aims to compile cutting-edge reviews, original research, and translational insights regarding the reprogramming of the tumor microenvironment in solid malignancies. This collection seeks to elucidate the obstacles and potential in the advancement of immunotherapy and targeted therapy for solid tumors by synthesizing insights from basic research, translational immunology, and clinical trial design. Our main goal is to provide a complete picture of how targeting the TME can help immune-based cancer therapies and other cancer therapies reach their full potential.




Please note: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent clinical or patient cohort, or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, which are not based on public databases) are not suitable for publication in this journal.