Dear Colleagues,

The scientific focus of this special issue is on tumor-host interactions that may impact on tumor initiation and progression, including therapeutic responses and (acquired) drug resistance. This issue will therefore also welcome submissions that combine empiric biomolecular research with pre-clinical studies and clinical investigations. The central topics should centre on the tumour microenvironment (TME), and the extracellular matrix (ECM). In particular, contributions are invited that investigate tumor/stroma interactions, such the molecular cross-talk between tumor cells and stromal components (cancer-associated fibroblasts or CAFs), infiltrating immune cells (immuno-oncology), adipocytes, blood vessels or endothelial cells (angiogenesis and lymph-angiogenesis).  It will also be of specific interest how cell-cell-interactions within the TME contribute to tumor cell dormancy, survival of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and defining site-specific stem cell niches. This broad and general outline can specifically include studies on impaired immune recognition and immune evasion within tumours, tumour heterogeneity, and their role in therapeutic failure, drug resistance, coupled with progression, metastasis, and poor patient outcome. Investigations that address the impact of these processes on personalized medicine, prediction of therapeutic outcome, modelling and clinical decision-making are particularly welcome. Additional molecular mechanisms contributing to these processes can include epigenetics, antigen expression and presentation by tumour cells, and cancer metabolism; ideally in relation to immune checkpoint regulation. Last not least, we invite contributions that investigate and highlight the role of these processes in targeted, immune and cellular therapies, which can also include clinical trials evolving from such studies. Thus, this special issue invites scientists from both basic and clinical research; especially encouraging articles that describe the combination of such approaches.

Dr. Matthias Nees
Dr. Adolfo Rivero-Müller
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• tumor-stroma interactions
• extracellular matrix (ECM)
• tumor microenvironment (TME)
• immune-oncology
• tumor heterogeneity