Dear Colleagues,

Immunotherapy is recognized as a major scientific advance that has revolutionized cancer therapy over the last few years. However, there is an urgent need to identify novel biomarkers that predict the complex responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. This could further improve treatment responses and prolong the survival of cancer patients. Biomarkers are biological/pathological molecules found in patient blood, tumor cells and tissues. They can be present at the genomic, cellular or soluble level, and be in the form of host genomic factors, serum proteins, and nucleic acids (DNA or RNA molecules) present within tumor cells or their microenvironment. Ideal biomarkers will help healthcare professionals achieve optimal treatment goals and bring clinical benefits to patients. Over the past decades, multiple tumor biomarkers have been validated and are now widely used in clinics with proven effectiveness. However, there is still a need to improve the efficacy of cancer treatments by identifying more reliable biomarkers.

The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies in proteomics and genomics has allowed single and multifactorial synergistic biomarkers to be investigated for clinical purposes using a variety of biomarker strategies. For example, mass spectrometry has improved the diagnosis of hybrid tumors and bulk, while single cell sequencing has improved our current understanding of specific tumor cell markers used for early diagnosis. The identification of multiple immune-checkpoint markers that are critical to the development of therapeutic targets for precise immune-oncology should also have a profound impact in the field of personalized medicine.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together original research and review articles that focus on the identification of novel predictive biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, with an emphasis on immunotherapy.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Biomarkers for predicting tumor recurrence and metastasis
- Biomarkers for the identification of tumor-associated cell types
- Biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and as immunotherapy targets
- Use of biomarkers for the assessment of tumor prognosis 
- Liquid biopsy biomarkers such as circulating tumor DNA or peripheral blood cell biomarkers
- New methodologies including algorithms used for the characterization of tumor biomarkers
- Biomarkers associated with the tumor immune microenvironment phenotype 
- Tumor genome and neoantigen-related biomarkers
- Spatial-temporal changes and regulatory mechanisms involved with biomarkers

Prof. Fu Wang

Guest Editor