Imaging-Guided Interventional Cancer Combination Immunotherapy

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Methods and Technologies Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 933

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Radiology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617, USA
Interests: liver cancers; pancreatic cancer; immunotherapy; natural killer; dendritic cell; small molecular inhibitor; immune checkpoint inhibitor; MRI
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development of novel treatment approaches will further advance our knowledge and support our fight to cure cancer. With state-of-the-art equipment for cancer research, our research group has focused on novel image-guided cancer immunotherapy including immune checkpoint inhibitors, natural killer and dendritic cell-based immunotherapy, image-guided small molecular inhibitor and antibody immunotherapy, image-guided combination therapies of local ablation and targeted immunotherapy, image-guided drug delivery for cancer and utilization of artificial intelligence for the prediction of prognosis and evaluation of clinical outcomes. Our research team investigates rabbit, mouse and rat tumor models to optimize and develop MRI sequences for the assessment of therapeutic responses.

Prof. Dr. Zhuoli Zhang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • image-guided cancer immunotherapy
  • image-guided combination therapies
  • local ablation
  • targeted immunotherapy
  • the assessment of therapeutic response

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 2647 KiB  
Article
Therapy Combining Sorafenib and Natural Killer Cells for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Insights from Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Histological Analyses
by Zigeng Zhang, Guangbo Yu, Aydin Eresen, Qiaoming Hou, Sha Webster, Farideh Amirrad, Surya Nauli and Zhuoli Zhang
Cancers 2025, 17(4), 699; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers17040699 - 19 Feb 2025
Viewed by 601
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a significant global health issue due to its high mortality rate and resistance to standard treatments. Sorafenib, the first-line systemic therapy for unresectable HCC, shows limited effectiveness due to resistance and severe side effects. Recent studies suggest that [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a significant global health issue due to its high mortality rate and resistance to standard treatments. Sorafenib, the first-line systemic therapy for unresectable HCC, shows limited effectiveness due to resistance and severe side effects. Recent studies suggest that combining sorafenib with immunotherapy, particularly natural killer (NK) cells, may improve treatment outcomes. Methods: This study examined the effectiveness of sorafenib combined with NK cells pretreated with interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in a rat HCC model. Tumor progression and treatment outcomes were assessed using MRI and histological analysis. Results: The results show that combination therapy significantly reduced tumor growth, increased tumor cell density, and inhibited angiogenesis and fibrosis in the tumor microenvironment. The sorafenib- and IL-12/IL-18-pretreated NK cell combination enhanced tumor inhibition by overcoming drug resistance and modulating the immune response. Conclusions: This study suggests that this combination therapy could be a promising strategy for treating HCC, offering both direct antitumor effects and modification of the tumor microenvironment for better clinical outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Imaging-Guided Interventional Cancer Combination Immunotherapy)
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