Both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system and effective immunosurveillance are crucially important for host protection against a wide range of pathogens and microbes, as well as the development of autoimmune inflammatory diseases and cancers. Dysregulated immune responses can either lead to exacerbated inflammatory reactions promoting the development of chronic inflammatory diseases or the suppression of T cell responses and induction of T cell exhaustion in chronic infection and cancer settings.

Despite recent advances in cancer screening and management, limited response rates and adverse immune-related effects have been observed in a significant proportion of cancer patients due to various reasons. Therefore, there are unmet medical needs and scientific challenges that should be overcome to improve patient quality of life and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of current treatments. Innovative clinical trial designs are required to evaluate the response of patients with refractory inflammatory autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, strategies using computational modelling of cancer to predict biomarkers and clinical outcomes, and clinical and pre-clinical studies to elucidate novel molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive cancer pathogenesis/progression. Modulating host immunity will be useful to ease disease detection, evaluate disease prognosis, and design more effective therapies to improve disease management.

The aim of this Special Issue is to attract original research articles and review articles about immune response modulation in cancer types including solid tumours and haematological malignancies. Subthemes include the genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and immunological mechanisms involved in disease pathogenesis and progression. Moreover, submissions about signalling pathways which regulate host immune responses, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer are welcome. We hope that this Special Issue highlights recent advances in disease treatment and potential therapeutic approaches.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• The importance of immunosurveillance and effective innate and adaptive immunity for host protection against carcinogenesis
• Genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and metabolic factors that dictate the host immune response to cancer and/or responsible for resistance to therapy
• Immunological, gene regulatory, and pathophysiological mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis
• The crosstalk between immune and non-immune cells in the tumour microenvironment
• The role of epigenetics and gut microbiota in cancer progression
• Resistance to cancer therapy
• Epigenetic modulators, such as circulating methylated DNA and microRNAs, as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer
• Resistance mechanisms to cancer immunotherapy, including adoptive T cell transfer, immune checkpoint blockers, and cancer stem cells
• Current treatments to enhance cancer management and potential therapeutic approaches
• Recent advances and technologies used to identify diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for cancer