Prognostic and Predictive Significance of Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The field of lung cancer research has increasingly turned its attention to the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), recognizing its pivotal influence on disease progression and response to therapies. Despite significant advances in surgical techniques and systemic therapies, NSCLC remains the foremost cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Traditional clinicopathologic parameters, such as TNM staging, only partially account for the prognostic heterogeneity observed in patients. The growing utilization of immunotherapies, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors, has underscored the urgent need for reliable biomarkers to guide treatment decisions. Recent studies highlight the profound impact of both the spatial and cellular architecture of TIME, as well as the lymph node immune microenvironment (LIME), on recurrence risk and therapeutic outcomes. However, standardized prognostic and predictive markers integrating these immune features into daily clinical use remain elusive.This Research Topic aims to elucidate the prognostic and predictive value of the tumor immune microenvironment in NSCLC. By synthesizing insights on immune cell composition, differentiation states, clonal evolution, and spatial context, we seek to uncover how these factors influence disease progression, recurrence risk, and responsiveness to immunomodulatory therapies. The goal is to address key questions such as which immune microenvironment features most accurately predict recurrence in early-stage NSCLC, and which can anticipate a patient’s response to immunotherapy. Ultimately, this effort aspires to identify reliable biomarkers that can inform risk stratification, personalize therapy, and enhance patient outcomes.To gather further insights in the context of the TIME and LIME as prognostic and predictive factors in NSCLC, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Differences between early and advanced NSCLC in the tumor and lymph node microenvironments- Tumor-draining lymph nodes and immunomodulation- Immune microenvironment changes induced by neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy- Predictive immune markers of response to immunotherapy- Translating tumor-immune microenvironment features into clinical practice- Pathologic assessment of tumor-immunology and response to immunotherapy- Transcriptional and spatial architecture of the tumor-immune and lymph node immune microenvironment- Novel technologies and computational approaches for profiling the tumor–immune interfacePlease note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent clinical or patient cohort, or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, which are not based on public databases) are not suitable for publication in this journal.Dr. Andrea Bille declares they are affiliated with Intuitive and Benson Dickinson as a consultant. Topic editors: Kei Suzuki, Takahiro Mimae, Jonathan Villena-Vargas, Andrea Bille, Hyojin Kim Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79023/prognostic-and-predictive-significance-of-tumor-immune-microenvironment-in-non-small-cell-lung-cancer