Tumor Microenvironment for Cancer Therapies: Supportive or Hostile?
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Tumor Microenvironment".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: cancer immunology; cancer immunotherapy; biomarkers; precision oncology; immune resistance; cancer vaccines; immune escape; immune checkpoint inhibitors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a dynamic ecosystem of tumor cells, immune cells and stromal cells (fibroblasts and endothelial cells), extracellular matrix, vessels, and soluble factors. It can be both supportive and hostile to cancer therapies. It can be supportive by enhancing drug delivery, promoting immune cell recruitment, supplying pro-survival signals, and inducing vascular remodeling, stromal activation, and cytokine networks that can improve therapeutic targeting and foster tumor vulnerability when strategically modulated alongside various therapeutic modalities for durable clinical responses. On the other hand, the TME can be hostile for cancer therapies by promoting angiogenesis, supplying metabolic substrates, generating strong immunosuppressive mechanisms (regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and checkpoint ligands), and imposing hypoxia, nutrient stress, and dense stromal barriers that can limit immune-mediated tumor clearance. This Special Issue aims to address therapeutic treatments that target and reprogram the TME (including immune checkpoint blockade, active immunization, bispecific T-cell engagers, chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, biological therapies, chemo-irradiation therapies, and combinations thereof), aiming to reactivate antitumor immunity along with inducing vascular normalization, cancer-associated fibroblasts/extracellular matrix modulation, and metabolic interventions to shift the balance toward antitumor immunity and better drug delivery, paving the way toward personalized cancer therapy.
We are pleased to invite you to submit your work to this Special Issue. Original research and review articles are both encouraged to be submitted. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Constantin N. Baxevanis
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- tumor microenvironment
- protumor effects
- antitumor effects
- immune cells
- stromal cells
- extracellular matrix
- cancer therapies
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