Tumor Microenvironment

In the last two decades, the focus of cancer research has been extended from the direct studies of cancer cells and their genetic/epigenetic changes to the investigations on the whole immediate surroundings of tumor cells that form a highly complex ecosystem. This complex system is also called tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME has malignant and non-malignant cellular components and acellular constituents. The malignant cells are cancer stem cells and more differentiated other cancer cells. The non-malignant cells are stromal fibroblasts, adipocytes, endothelial cells, pericytes and various immune cells. The acellular constituents are macromolecules and other factors that build up the extracellular matrix.

One of the major questions is recently among cancer researchers how they could target the entire TME as an extremely complex and diverse system to find novel therapeutical solutions for the benefit of cancer patients.

Current methodological approaches such as single-cell analyses and spatial transcriptomics provide a handful of data on TME and cancer cells. However, to get a comprehensive view of the dynamic crosstalk in TME in its entirety, there are numerous pieces missing from the puzzle.
This Special Issue welcomes contributions that improve our understanding of the complex ecosystem of TME and provide further specific details on the tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing regulatory circuits within the TME and describe potential therapeutic targets.

Potential areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:
● Interactions between tumor cells and other local cellular and non-cellular components
● Various means of tumor-stroma communication
● Potential clinically relevant target molecules of the tumor microenvironment
● Predictive biomarkers
● Influence of the tumor microenvironment on tumor metabolism, growth and metastasis
● Significance of cell death modes within the tumor microenvironment

Authors are welcome to submit articles presenting original studies or literature review work. Please consult the journal's information regarding Article Types, Author Guidelines, and Publishing Fees, or direct any questions to the Editorial Office: por@por-journal.com

Even though abstract submission is not mandatory, we encourage all interested researchers to submit a “manuscript summary” before submitting their article. Manuscript summaries do not have to coincide with the final abstract of the article.

Article types and fees

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Commentary
• Guideline
• Hypothesis & Theory
• Letter to the Editor
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Commentary
• Guideline
• Hypothesis & Theory
• Letter to the Editor
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review

Keywords: tumor microenvironment, cellular and non-cellular components, tumor-stroma communication, predictive biomarkers in cancer, cell death in cancer