Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy: Early Detection, Diagnosis, Systemic Treatments, Novel Biomarkers, and Resistance Mechanisms

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer is characterized by the accumulation of various genetic and cellular regulatory alterations, which provides the immune system with the means to generate T cell responses that recognize and eradicate cancer cells. An effective anticancer immune response that leads to effective killing of cancer cells includes a series of stepwise events, called the cancer immunity cycle. The host immune system is thus a powerful tool that, if better harnessed, could significantly enhance the efficacy of cytotoxic therapy and improve outcomes for cancer sufferers. Indeed, cancer is visible to the immune system, i.e., immunogenic, during early neoplasia. Elimination can be explained by cytotoxic antigen-specific T cells responding to relatively high mutational burdens induced by carcinogens and thus providing neo-antigens for T-cell priming; these findings have established the principles of elimination, equilibrium, and eventually escape when neoplastic cells become invisible to the immune system. This provides the basis of oncoimmunology and current cancer immunotherapy. The aim of this Special Issue is to publish original research and review articles related to recent progress in cancer immunity and immunotherapy, including early detection, diagnosis, systemic treatments, novel biomarkers, and resistance mechanisms.

Dr. Tao Jiang
Dr. Yongchang Zhang​​
Topic Editors