Immune–Cancer Cell Interactions: Impact on Clinical Outcomes and Opportunities for Therapy
A special issue of Onco (ISSN 2673-7523).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 7 February 2026 | Viewed by 409
Special Issue Editors
Interests: B cell responses in cancer; antibody engineering and glycoengineering; IgE class of antibodies in cancer; antibody Fc-mediated functions in cancer; cancer immunology; cancer immunotherapy; antibody-drug conjugates; melanoma; ovarian cancer; breast cancer; allergo-oncology; ADCC; ADCP; macrophages; monocytes; NK cells
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recent advances have revealed the importance of immune cells and their interactions with cancer as critical determinants of clinical outcomes. Immune cell modulation, conditioning, polarization states, stimulatory potential, and fitness emerge as key determinants of cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. Several factors released by tumor cells and an array of mechanisms such as apoptosis evasion, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, plasticity of mRNA translation by tumor cells, and tumor heterogeneity play critical roles. Cancer–immune cell crosstalk is further influenced by the extracellular matrix, as well as vasculature and specialized cell types, including stromal and endothelial cells.
Understanding and exploiting these mechanisms and targeting the immune or metabolic microenvironment offer clinical opportunities for immuno-oncology, including T cell and antibody therapies, cancer vaccines, and combination therapy. Further, these interactions can reveal biomarkers for prognosis, prediction of responses, and stratification, holding high potential for improving the clinical management and treatment for patients with cancer.
Onco is pleased to invite submissions to this Special Issue on immune–cancer cell interactions and their impact on the tumor microenvironment, treatment response, therapeutic resistance, and patient stratification. We place specific focus on clinical insights, therapeutic development, and trial design.
Potential articles could cover the following topics:
- Characterization and role of immune cell types (e.g., neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, fibroblasts, natural killer, T and B cells) and their crosstalk with cancer cells and/or the tumor microenvironment;
- Interactions of cancer cells and immune cells with the microbiome;
- The influence of metabolism in conditioning immune cells;
- Interactions of immune and cancer cells with the extracellular matrix;
- Role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer growth, invasion, and progression;
- Relevance of the immune–tumor interphase and microenvironment in cancer evolution;
- Relevance of the tumor microenvironment in immune cell differentiation;
- Immunosuppressive role of the tumor microenvironment;
- Inflammation gene signatures;
- Immune and cancer biomarkers and predicting treatment outcomes;
- Patient stratification in cancer immunotherapy;
- New targets for cancer immunotherapy;
- Apoptosis evasion, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and tumor heterogeneity as determinants of immune conditioning and suppression;
- Drug resistance;
- Computational modeling and new technologies for the study of immune–cancer cell interactions;
- Impact and modulation of immune–cancer cell crosstalk on immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy;
- Outlook on progress in clinical and patient outcomes.
We welcome submissions of original research, reviews, short definitive reviews, perspectives, meeting reports, and editorials for consideration in this Special Issue.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Sophia Karagiannis
Dr. Ourania E. Tsitsilonis
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- immune cell
- immune modulation
- crosstalk
- cancer immunotherapy
- therapy resistance
- cancer immunology
- immuno-oncology
- immune evasion
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