Immunotherapy for Cancer: Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors or Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Approaches

Dear colleagues

Based on the global cancer burden, 19.3 million new cancer cases (18.1 million excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) and almost 10.0 million cancer deaths (9.9 million excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) occurred in 2020. Tumor heterogeneity is one of the biggest challenges limiting the effectiveness and the impact of targeted therapy. It is critical for cancer growth and it is vital to consider the gene expression patterns of individual cells in detail. Numerous subsets of cells are sequenced using conventional sequencing methods. As a result, rare cell clones that may be involved in tumor growth are hidden. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) solves the drawbacks of conventional RNA sequencing by measuring the entire transcriptome at a single-cell resolution and discriminating between distinct cell types by clustering various cells in tumor tissue.

Additionally, this offers a better understanding of the molecular pathways that promote cancer progression and identifies somatic mutations throughout malignancy. The application of these technologies has a significant impact on cancer immunotherapy, such as identification of novel immune checkpoints and revealing the expression pattern of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the specific cancer type and also in the individual cells, which allows for a deeper understanding of the molecular and cellular interactions between cancer and the immune system. Single-cell technologies applied to tumor and blood samples have been generated. It will continue to create lots of new data with a direct effect on translational clinical research, leading to the identification of potential biomarkers. 

Prof. Dr. Nicola Silvestris
Prof. Dr. Behzad Baradaran
Dr. Afshin Derakhshani
Guest Editors

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