Pharmacological Targeting of Tumor Microenvironment: From Bench to Bedside

The tumor microenvironment is a complex integrated system, which is different from the microenvironment formed by normal cells and surrounding tissues. Recent research has identified novel signaling pathways by which tumor-stroma interactions, which are essential for tumor proliferation, invasion, adhesion, and migration. Targeting the tumor microenvironment may be a novel strategy to improve the treatment outcomes of cancer, and eventually improve the overall survival of the cancer patients. Up to date, great progress has been made to develop novel therapies towards a more efficient targeting of the tumor microenvironment. These studies have been focusing on therapies targeting the components of the tumor microenvironment including conventional therapeutics, combined therapies, and nanomedicines. Moreover, models that resemble tumor microenvironment including tumor-tissue explants, multicellular tumor-spheroids, or “tumor on a chip” have been developed by bench investigators. However, further studies remain pending for clinical application, due to the insufficient understanding of tumor cell interactions. Thus, the evolution and progression of cancer and its intense interaction with the surrounding environment need to be explored in more detail, and more efforts are still required to evaluate the potential and to determine the efficacy in suitable pre-clinical settings.

For this Research Topic, we would like to create a forum for recent advances on novel pharmacological approaches targeting microenvironments for cancer treatment. This Research Topic will also focus on the evaluation of the efficacy of pharmacologic compounds in regulating tumor-stroma interactions in order to attenuate cancer progression.

This Research Topic welcomes submissions of Original Research, Review, and Case Report, focusing on but not limited to, the following subtopics:
• Novel pharmacological approaches targeting tumor-associated immune landscape.
• Novel therapeutic strategies targeting tumor-associated stroma and vasculature.
• Pharmacological approaches to improve drug delivery.


Please note that manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in Frontiers in Oncology.