New Roles for Old Friends: Involvement of the Innate Immune System in Tumor Progression

Dear Colleagues,

The role of the immune system in the progression of human oncological conditions has been a candent topic of research in recent years. The tumor microenvironment (TME), composed of malignant cells, epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and inflammatory immune cells represents an area of great immune activity and crosstalk between both adaptive and innate immune system cells and tumor cells.  The great attention initially paid to the adaptive immune system has permitted the comprehension of the lymphocyte – tumor cell interaction, the identification of immune checkpoints, and the development of targeted therapies (i.e., immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) against PD-L1 and CTLA-4), which has supposed a milestone in the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma and melanoma patients, among others. Nevertheless, ICIs have shown a modest efficacy in some malignancies, including ovarian cancer.

Albeit out of the spotlight for a long time, the participation of the innate immune system (IIS) in the progression of human cancers is gaining increasing attention. On the one hand, the identification of several players of the IIS as tumor-associated macrophages and neutrophils, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and natural killer cells in the TME has spurred researchers to identify its contribution to the creation of a permissive environment for tumor development and metastasis formation. On the other hand, the discovery that the extracellular traps produced by several of these cell types (NETs, METs,…)  have a role in tumor metastasis formation, evasion of the immune system, and cancer-associated thrombosis has triggered the interest of worldwide research groups to understand the underlying involved mechanisms and to identify new therapeutic targets. Remarkably, it has also been identified that IIS cells can fuse with tumor cancer cells to form hybrid cells that represent an advantage in tumor progression.

In light of these advances, this Special Issue will expand our knowledge of current advances in the field of the innate immune system in oncology, focusing on technical advances and the identification of new roles of the involved cells in tumor progression.

Dr. Josep Marí-Alexandre
Dr. Juan Gilabert-Estellés
Prof. Dr. Martin Götte
Dr. Barbara McCormack
Guest Editors

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• innate immune system
• tumor progression
• macrophages
• neutrophils
• myeloid-derived suppressor cells
• natural killer cells