Advances in Cell and Gene Therapy in Tumors: From Bench to Bedside

Dear Colleagues,

Cell-based therapy, which involves the administration of therapeutic cells as living agents to treat diseases, has currently experienced explosive growth in both pre-clinical development and expansion within the pharmaceutical marketplace. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) takes advantage of immune cells to eliminate tumors. ACT can be broadly classified as non-genetically and genetically engineered cell products or more specifically based on the cell type, such as T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells (DCs), cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Both non-genetically and genetically engineered ACTs are either available or being actively investigated in clinical settings involving T cells (CAR-T, TCR-T, and γδ T cells, as well as gene-edited T cells, respectively), TILs, DCs, and macrophages. Meanwhile, gene therapy involves the use of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) for the treatment of various human diseases. Based on the pathogenesis mechanism, the ideal gene therapy can be achieved either by delivering a therapeutic gene as a substitute for the missing or defective endogenous counterpart or by reducing the levels of a harmful defective gene product, using naked oligonucleotides, as well as viral and non-viral vectors. Genetically engineered cells also belong to the category of gene therapy, using extraneous genetic products to treat diseases such as tumors. Many pre-clinical explorations and clinical trials have exhibited the promising potential of cell and gene therapies in the treatment of human tumors. From 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2019, 491 clinical trials comprising a total of 178 cell and gene therapies were carried out worldwide (INFORMA database). However, cell and gene therapeutics are an emerging modality with the potential to treat many currently intractable diseases, especially tumors, through uniquely powerful modes of action. Despite notable recent clinical and commercial successes, cell and gene therapies continue to face numerous challenges that limit their widespread translation and commercialization, including the identification of an appropriate cell source and gene vehicle, the generation of a sufficiently viable, potent, and safe product that meets patient- and disease-specific needs, and the development of scalable manufacturing processes. These hurdles are being addressed through the use of cutting-edge basic research, like genome and epigenome editing, advanced biomaterials, and so on. The goal of this Special Issue is to explore the potential of cell and gene therapy for the treatment of human tumors, aiming to bring together original research, reviews, perspectives, comments, and letters to editors that cover the latest advances and challenges in the development and application of cell and gene therapy in tumors. Potential subtopics include but are not limited to the following: 

• the pre-clinical study of cell and gene therapy in tumors;
• the clinical application and management of cell and gene therapy in tumors;
• next-generation cell and gene therapy development;
• clinical trials of cell and gene therapy in human tumors;
• polices and guidelines of cell and gene therapy.

Dr. Shuhang Wang
Guest Editor

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 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. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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.

• cell therapy
• gene therapy
• genetically engineered cells
• cancer treatment
• clinical trials
• pre-clinical study