Challenges in Cellular Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 359

Special Issue Editor

1. Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany
2. Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany
Interests: lung cancer; biomarkers; tumor immunology; targeted therapy; immunotherapy; Resistance mechanism; mouse models

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Cell-based cancer therapies are continuously evolving and improving, not only in the treatment of hematologic malignancies but also in solid tumors. Prominent cellular cancer therapies comprise T cell-based and natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies engineered with synthetic chimeric antigen receptors (CARs).

A successful anti-tumor effect of cellular immunotherapies harbors several challenges. Engineered and/or expanded cells need to be produced in sufficient amounts, they have to target the tumor cell appropriately and infiltrate the tumor.

In hematologic malignancies, cellular immunotherapies have three main limitations: (1) toxicities, (2) graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), and (3) disease progression in an antigen-positive or an antigen-negative manner. Moreover, tumor cells can perform a lineage switch after the application of engineered cells.

Especially in solid tumors, a selection of less immunogenic tumor cells is a well-described phenomenon. Other mechanisms contributing to the tumor relapse are an immunosuppressive micromilieu and neovascularization hindering immune cell infiltration and effector function and leading to hypoxia. Last but not least, in solid cancers the identification of a proper tumor-associated antigen is demanding.

Based on your expertise in cellular immunotherapy, you are invited to contribute a research paper or review in this Special Issue to highlight the remaining challenges for clinicians: to achieve a maximal, selective and persisting anti-tumor immune response in patients suffering from rapidly progressive cancers. Studies focusing on B cell-based and DC-based immunotherapy, and pre-clinical investigations are also welcome.

Dr. Lydia Meder
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • adoptive cellular therapy
  • T cells
  • CARs
  • NK cells
  • solid cancers
  • tumor antigens
  • dendritic cells
  • B cells
  • toxicities
  • GvHD

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
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