Metabolic reprogramming and immune evasion are critical hallmarks of cancer. The metabolic reprogramming by cancer cells serves not only to promote their own growth but also to create an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The tumor metabolic microenvironment inhibits antitumor effector functions of immune cells and supports the differentiation and function of suppressive immune cells. Thus, metabolic reprogramming and immune evasion are interdependent features as the cancer cells modulate the tumor microenvironment to establish the metabolic intermediates involved in influencing the immune responses. Because metabolic alterations can regulate the activities and functions of both tumor cells and immune cells, understanding and targeting immune-onco-metabolism could open avenues for improving responses to cancer therapies, including immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and chemotherapy.

Inhibition of tumor progression and/or metastasis through metabolic-targeting has been widely explored. The metabolic crosstalk between immune cells and tumor cells in the tumor microenvironment is a decisive factor that is important for understanding tumor biology and identifying vulnerability of cancer cells. This interaction between immune cells and cancer cells is a complex and dynamic process in which immune cells act as a determinant factor of cancer cells’ fate and vice versa. There are some provocative questions that remain to be addressed. How does metabolic reprogramming contribute to an altered immune response against cancer cells? Furthermore, how do immune cells influence cancer cells during cancer progression, metastasis, and therapy?

It is critical to understand the cellular, molecular, and biochemical aspects of how cancer cells reprogram their metabolism to overcomplete infiltered immune cells and immune evasion for tumor growth, metastasis, and therapy response. Understanding these processes could generate new therapeutic opportunities for cancer treatment. Also, it is important to understand and identify therapeutic targets that interrupt the cancer-promoting association between cancer cells and the adjacent immune cells, allowing for maximizing benefits of immune checkpoint inhibitors as well as other genetic (targeted therapy) and cellular (such as chemotherapy) therapies.

The purpose of this Research Topic is to feature articles focused on various aspects of cancer immune-/onco-/metabolism associated with the tumor microenvironment and their implications in cancer therapy and therapeutic responses.

We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Perspectives, Opinions, Systematic Reviews, Reviews, and Mini Reviews highlighting new advances including but not limited to:

-Cellular bioenergetics (such as glucose, fatty acid, and amino acid metabolism) or systemic cancer metabolic dysregulation (like diabetes, obesity, and cancer) and their role in modulating therapeutic responses and immune functions
-Mitochondrial metabolism and dysfunction
-ROS signaling and redox homeostasis
-Signaling pathways involved in regulating the interaction between cancer metabolism and the immune system
-Immune metabolism in the tumor microenvironment
-Inflammation and cancer metabolism
-Innate and adaptive immune response in the tumor microenvironment, modulation of immunotherapeutic responses by cancer metabolism and vice versa

And we welcome the submission of Methods articles and Study Protocols including these areas but not limited to:

-Any new and advanced method/technology to study metabolism in general
-Metabolism in cancer and immune cells and their interactions

Please note: Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.

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Frontiers in Oncology

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