The efficacy responses of tumor patients treated with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) vary greatly. Not all patients could benefit from chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and ICIs monotherapy treatment. Poor responses to anti-tumor drugs or drug resistance may be mainly caused by the complex and heterogeneous tumor microenvironment (TME). It has been reported that chemotherapy or targeted therapy could not only kill tumor cells directly, but also stimulate effective anti-tumor immune response and form a specific immune microenvironment state, which not only affects the efficacy of anti-tumor drugs but also may affect the efficacy of post-line treatment. Some ICI combined with chemotherapy drugs or small molecular inhibitors have been approved for first-line treatment of cancer, but the mechanism is still unclear. It may re-program the tumor immune microenvironment, or it may affect the specific metabolic pathway in the tumor immune microenvironment, or it may affect the microbial homeostasis in the tumor.
The purpose of this Article Collection is to emphasize the impact of anti-tumor drugs on the tumor immune microenvironment, discuss the changes and the potential challenges of TME in tumor patients treated with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI), and provide a theoretical basis for the combined treatment of anti-tumor drugs or anti-tumor drug resistance through a new understanding of TME changes. We welcome the submission of original research, reviews, expert opinions, and commentary, covering the latest progress of TME affected by radiation/chemotherapy and immunotherapy, including but not limited to:
- Research on the changes of immune microenvironment of tumor patients or humanized mouse models treated with anti-tumor drugs
- Exploring the new functional subsets and functional analysis of immune cells in tumor immune microenvironment after anti-tumor drug treatment through single cell sequencing
- Investigating the differences in the effects of different anti-tumor drugs on the immune microenvironment (such as Cisplatin, Gemcitabine, Irinotecan, etc.)
- Examining the differences of the effect of the same drug on different tumor immune microenvironments
- Investigating the effects of anti-tumor drugs on the microbial homeostasis in tumors and the immune microenvironment
Annals of Medicine accepts the following types of articles:
- Research Articles
- Review Articles
- Clinical Trials
- Protocols
- Case Series
- Commentaries
- Letter To The Editor
When submitting your article, please select the section, ‘Oncology’, and the Special Issue, ‘The Role of Anti-Cancer Drugs in Tumor Immune Microenvironment’ from the drop-down menu on the submission system.
Annals of Medicine is an online, open access, international journal publishing across all areas of medicine and is part of our Elevate Series. This means that you will receive a concierge-level publishing experience, including dedicated support from our expert in-house Editorial team, with guaranteed response times of within 48 hours, an initial decision on whether your article will be peer reviewed within 5 working days, and a first decision on your research within an average of 22 working days.
