Topic: The Role of the Immune Micro-environment in Tumour Metastasis and Therapeutic Strategies

Cancer metastasis is one of the most crucial risk factors leading to poor prognosis. The "seed-soil" theory is the most recognized mechanism of cancer metastasis. Besides of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF), the tumor microenvironment also contains a variety of immune cells and their secreted products. Large amount of studies have shown that the disorder of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) plays an extremely important role in tumor metastasis. As we known, tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) is one of the most studied immune cells involved in cancer metastasis in the tumor microenvironment. The transition from M1 macrophages to M2 macrophages can promote cancer metastasis by the secretion of various factors or extracellular vesicles. However, due to the complexity of TIME, our understanding regarding the role of tumor immune microenvironment in cancer metastasis remains limited.

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to provide the latest research achievement related to the role and the underlying molecular mechanisms of tumor Immune microenvironment (TIME) in cancer metastasis, as well as the development of new strategies targeting to immune microenvironment for metastatic cancer therapy or prevention.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
1. The role of immune cells such as macrophage, MDSC and neutrophils in cancer metastasis promotion;
2. The mechanisms underlying TIME promoting cancer metastasis by educating the microenvironment or cancer cells in primary tumor;
3. The mechanisms underlying TIME promoting cancer metastasis by educating the pre-metastatic niche to increase the directional migration and colonization ability of cancer cells;
4. The heterogeneity of immune microenvironment between primary and metastatic tumor;
5. Identification of TIME related key factors in cancer metastasis process;
6. Establishment of TIME related predictive model for cancer metastasis based on multi-omics techniques, including bulk sequencing, single-cell sequencing, spatial transcriptome, gut microbiota, etc;
7. Novel technologies or clinical applications related to real-time dynamic monitoring of recurrence and metastasis based on TIME factors;
8. Identification of the key therapeutic targets for metastatic cancer;
9. Development of the novel drugs or strategies targeted to TIME for metastatic cancer;
10. The mechanisms underlying TIME promoting cancer metastasis from multi-dimensions, such as abnormal signalling pathway, epigenetic modification including ncRNA/DNA methylation /m6A methylation, protein post-translational modification including phosphorylation /acetylation /succinylation /glycosylation /ubiquitination, metabolic reprogramming, extracellular vesicles, and so on.

30 Jun 2024