Many inflammatory signaling pathways are activated in several types of cancer and link chronic inflammation to the tumorigenesis process. Inflammation has a dual role in antitumor or pro-tumoral activity depending on the plasticity of immune cells, their phenotype in the inflammatory tumor microenvironment, and their secreting factors such as cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and proteolytic enzymes. Inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and proteolytic enzymes produced by immune cells such as macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes activate transcriptional factors and further downstream signaling pathways within the context of the tumor microenvironment. Identification of inflammatory mediators and their interactions with other tumors and stromal cells within the tumor microenvironment involved in antitumor or pro-tumor activity is important for future therapeutic strategies and tumor prognostic purposes.

Therefore, to identify critical inflammatory mediators and reveal their roles in the tumor microenvironment, this Special Issue aims to focus on research progress in novel biochemical mechanisms of inflammatory mediators in various tumors. We welcome the submission of original research and review articles that include basic and clinical studies, as well as technological applications in cancer inflammatory mediators.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Identification of novel cancer inflammatory mediators that involve cancer progression
• Novel biomarkers of cancer inflammatory mediators for therapeutic response in cancer patients, which include but are not limited to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy
• Novel mechanisms of immune cells involved in the activation, migration, and infiltration in the tumor microenvironment
• Multi-omics revealing the mechanisms of cross-talk between cancer cells and local immune cells
• Single-cell sequencing for revealing the heterogeneity of immune cells and the mechanism for inflammatory remodeling in the tumor microenvironment
• The mechanism of mediators for anti-cancer or cancer-promoting tumor-associated macrophages
• Serum or tumor microenvironment biomarkers, such as circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), mRNA, microRNA (miRNA), circular RNA (circRNA), exosomal RNA (exRNA), and long non-coding RNA (IncRNA), for regulating inflammatory in the tumor microenvironment
• Intratumor microbiota affecting the inflammatory progression of tumors
• Anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory drugs and their mechanisms related to response or sensitivity to cancer immunotherapy
• Immune neoantigens involved in the inflammatory response during tumor immunotherapy.