Immunology, tumour microenvironment & metastasis

The immune system is involved in the progression and development of cancer and immunotherapy can be used to treat cancer. Increased knowledge between these interactions is important to develop new concepts and advances in basic, translational, and clinical cancer immunology and immunotherapy. In addition, the use and development of human antibodies as technology in immunology research are also important.

The tumour microenvironment (TME) is defined as the environments supporting the heterogeneous tumours. The tumour microenvironment is composed of both cellular components including cancer cells, immune cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and many more cell types, as well as acellular components of the tissue including extracellular matrix components, metabolites, oxygen, acidity, and nutrition’s among others. The tumour microenvironment plays a fundamental role during tumorigenesis and holds great opportunities in future cancer therapies.

Metastasis is a complex prosess in which cancer cells leave the original tumour site and migrate to other parts of the body and establish a secondary tumour. Increased knowledge about the metastatic process is important for development of new therapeutic targets for affecting the progression of cancer diseases.