The presence of lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of the majority of solid tumor types, known as immune hot or inflamed tumors, has been shown to be prognostic for survival and sometimes predictive of response to therapy. However, not all patients, particularly those with advanced disease have such immune hot tumors, and there can be heterogeneity between primary and metastatic TMEs. Non-immune hot tumors have two types of immune TMEs, immune cold or desert tumors, that have no lymphocytes and immune excluded tumors, that have lymphocytes surrounding the tumor invading margin, but are not present in the center of the tumor.
The goal for this research topic focuses on mechanisms and characterization of different TMEs with lymphocyte excluded phenotypes. There have been a few studies examining both physical and soluble mechanisms for lymphocyte exclusion from the TME and we believe a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of exclusion could elicit targets that could transform excluded tumors to immune hot tumors with the potential to improve patient prognosis and response to therapy. We welcome Original Research, Review and Mini-review articles related to, but not limited to the following topics:
• Characterization of physical and soluble factors leading to lymphocyte exclusion
• Correlation of excluded phenotypes with clinical outcome
• Characterization of lymphocytes in excluded TMEs
• Exclusion of cellular therapies into the TME (e.g. CART)
• Therapeutic interventions to overcome mechanisms of lymphocyte exclusion
Dr. Church is a stockholder and employee of Nanostring Technologies. Dr. Van de Ven receives financial support from Genmab BV. All other Topic Editors declare no conflict of interest in relation to the Research Topic theme.
The presence of lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of the majority of solid tumor types, known as immune hot or inflamed tumors, has been shown to be prognostic for survival and sometimes predictive of response to therapy. However, not all patients, particularly those with advanced disease have such immune hot tumors, and there can be heterogeneity between primary and metastatic TMEs. Non-immune hot tumors have two types of immune TMEs, immune cold or desert tumors, that have no lymphocytes and immune excluded tumors, that have lymphocytes surrounding the tumor invading margin, but are not present in the center of the tumor.
The goal for this research topic focuses on mechanisms and characterization of different TMEs with lymphocyte excluded phenotypes. There have been a few studies examining both physical and soluble mechanisms for lymphocyte exclusion from the TME and we believe a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of exclusion could elicit targets that could transform excluded tumors to immune hot tumors with the potential to improve patient prognosis and response to therapy. We welcome Original Research, Review and Mini-review articles related to, but not limited to the following topics:
• Characterization of physical and soluble factors leading to lymphocyte exclusion
• Correlation of excluded phenotypes with clinical outcome
• Characterization of lymphocytes in excluded TMEs
• Exclusion of cellular therapies into the TME (e.g. CART)
• Therapeutic interventions to overcome mechanisms of lymphocyte exclusion
Dr. Church is a stockholder and employee of Nanostring Technologies. Dr. Van de Ven receives financial support from Genmab BV. All other Topic Editors declare no conflict of interest in relation to the Research Topic theme.
