Emerging Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets in Cancer Immunotherapy

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the successes in cancer management, some immunotherapies can dysregulate the immune system, leading to immune-mediated adverse events. Extracellular vesicles (Evs), including exosomes, are emerging as key players in tumor immunology. Importantly, tumor-derived EVs (TDEs) contain a unique molecular signature that is reflective of the tumor's underlying genetic complexity. They offer a glimpse into the immune tumor microenvironment (TME) and have the potential to be a novel, minimally invasive biomarker for cancer immunotherapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), such as anti-programmed death-1(PD-1), its ligand (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4)- antibodies, have revolutionized the treatment of a wide variety of tumors. Despite the success of many cancer immunotherapies, such as CAR-T therapy, there is still a need for noninvasive or minimally invasive biomarkers both for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. The targeted analysis of markers in biospecimens such as plasma could serve this purpose by potentially obviating the need for a tissue sample. Therefore the purpose of this Special Issue is analyze the current challenges in the selection of biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer immunotherapy to modulate the antitumor immune response.

Dr. Wioletta Olejarz
Guest Editor

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