Treatment resistance is a major outstanding unmet clinical challenge, responsible for treatment failure, disease relapse and suboptimal clinical outcomes in patients with haematological malignancies. Cancer cells interact with and re-educate cellular (e.g. stromal and immune cells) and non-cellular components (e.g. extracellular matrix proteins) within their surrounding microenvironment. This reprogrammed pro-cancer microenvironment supports cancer cell survival, and drives resistance to the killing effects of conventional and targeted therapies. Despite the introduction of newly approved targeted therapies in the clinic within the last few years, there are still no highly effective approaches for circumventing therapy resistance. Consequently, targeting cancer cell-microenvironment interactions via novel approaches is a key strategy for overcoming therapeutic resistance in haematological malignancies. As a result, it is essential to better understand the cellular and non-cellular components driving therapy resistance. In doing so, therapeutic targets will be identified that will re-sensitise cancer cells to the killing effects of current treatment strategies, circumventing treatment resistance.
The main aim of this research topic is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current cutting-edge approaches targeting blood cancer cell-microenvironment interactions to understand the molecular mechanisms promoting therapy resistance and circumvent therapy resistance. Additionally, it will focus on newly designed immunotherapeutic and pharmacological agents and combination therapies, targeting microenvironment-driven drug resistance.
We encourage submissions of Original Research, Clinical Trial articles, and Reviews on approaches targeting blood cancer-microenvironment interactions in potentiating the killing effects of anti-cancer therapies and circumventing resistance, focusing on but not restricted to the following subtopics:
• Impact of non-tumour cellular components (e.g. stromal and immune cells) on conventional and targeted drug resistance.
• Contribution of the surrounding extracellular matrix on resistance to anti-cancer agents.
• Novel immunotherapeutic approaches for treating cancer (e.g. CAR-T and CAR-M cells).
• Novel Therapeutic strategies hijacking protein degradation (e.g PROTACS) in cancer cells to target microenvironment-induced resistance mechanisms.
• New combination therapies to re-sensitize cancer cells to the killing effects of current anti-cancer drugs.
Treatment resistance is a major outstanding unmet clinical challenge, responsible for treatment failure, disease relapse and suboptimal clinical outcomes in patients with haematological malignancies. Cancer cells interact with and re-educate cellular (e.g. stromal and immune cells) and non-cellular components (e.g. extracellular matrix proteins) within their surrounding microenvironment. This reprogrammed pro-cancer microenvironment supports cancer cell survival, and drives resistance to the killing effects of conventional and targeted therapies. Despite the introduction of newly approved targeted therapies in the clinic within the last few years, there are still no highly effective approaches for circumventing therapy resistance. Consequently, targeting cancer cell-microenvironment interactions via novel approaches is a key strategy for overcoming therapeutic resistance in haematological malignancies. As a result, it is essential to better understand the cellular and non-cellular components driving therapy resistance. In doing so, therapeutic targets will be identified that will re-sensitise cancer cells to the killing effects of current treatment strategies, circumventing treatment resistance.
The main aim of this research topic is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current cutting-edge approaches targeting blood cancer cell-microenvironment interactions to understand the molecular mechanisms promoting therapy resistance and circumvent therapy resistance. Additionally, it will focus on newly designed immunotherapeutic and pharmacological agents and combination therapies, targeting microenvironment-driven drug resistance.
We encourage submissions of Original Research, Clinical Trial articles, and Reviews on approaches targeting blood cancer-microenvironment interactions in potentiating the killing effects of anti-cancer therapies and circumventing resistance, focusing on but not restricted to the following subtopics:
• Impact of non-tumour cellular components (e.g. stromal and immune cells) on conventional and targeted drug resistance.
• Contribution of the surrounding extracellular matrix on resistance to anti-cancer agents.
• Novel immunotherapeutic approaches for treating cancer (e.g. CAR-T and CAR-M cells).
• Novel Therapeutic strategies hijacking protein degradation (e.g PROTACS) in cancer cells to target microenvironment-induced resistance mechanisms.
• New combination therapies to re-sensitize cancer cells to the killing effects of current anti-cancer drugs.