Genetic alterations in cancer, in addition to being the fundamental drivers of tumorigenesis, can give rise to a variety of metabolic adaptations that allow cancer cells to survive and proliferate in diverse tumor microenvironments. This metabolic flexibility is different from normal cellular metabolic processes and leads to heterogeneity in cancer metabolism within the same cancer type or even within the same tumor. In this book, we delve into the complexity and diversity of cancer metabolism, and highlight how understanding the heterogeneity of cancer metabolism is fundamental to the development of effective metabolism-based therapeutic strategies. Deciphering how cancer cells utilize various nutrient resources will enable clinicians and researchers to pair specific chemotherapeutic agents with patients who are most likely to respond with positive outcomes, allowing for more cost-effective and personalized cancer therapeutic strategies.

This book offers a broad overview of the concepts and research findings in immunometabolism. The immune system is made up of numerous different cell types, pathways, and components that must be able to respond rapidly to a pathogen or cancer, but must also remain quiescent in the absence of challenges. Immune cells rely on metabolic pathways to adapt to changing environments and stimuli. Additionally, these cells can be modified in function or fate by fluctuations in available nutrients. The chapters in this book describe ways in which immune cells utilize and are regulated by metabolic pathways. Topics include how immune-cell metabolism shapes immune homeostasis, and how dysregulation of these pathways can lead to immune disorders. In different contexts, such as a tumor microenvironment, immune-cell function and identity may be modified not only by cytokines and checkpoint molecules, but also by nutrient availability and other metabolic stimuli. Transcriptional reprogramming confers many of the changes in immune cell metabolism that are seen when a T-cell, for example, undergoes activation or functional adaptation to different environments. Lastly, immune cells can destructively or protectively participate in human metabolic homeostasis or disorders. This book summarizes immune-metabolism from a variety of different perspectives, including the ways in which metabolic cues, pathways, and requirements of immune cells change in conditions of homeostasis and activation. The exploration of the significance of metabolic checkpoints and other cues, particularly in the context of cancer and immune disorders, may form the foundation for the development of therapeutics.

The book addresses controversies related to the origins of cancer and provides solutions to cancer management and prevention. It expands upon Otto Warburg's well-known theory that all cancer is a disease of energy metabolism. However, Warburg did not link his theory to the "hallmarks of cancer" and thus his theory was discredited. This book aims to provide evidence, through case studies, that cancer is primarily a metabolic disease requring metabolic solutions for its management and prevention. Support for this position is derived from critical assessment of current cancer theories. Brain cancer case studies are presented as a proof of principle for metabolic solutions to disease management, but similarities are drawn to other types of cancer, including breast and colon, due to the same cellular mutations that they demonstrate.

Delivery Technologies for Immuno-Oncology: Volume 1: Delivery Strategies and Engineering Technologies in Cancer Immunotherapy examines the challenges of delivering immuno-oncology therapies. Immuno-oncology (IO) is a growing field of medicine at the interface of immunology and cancer biology leading to development of novel therapeutic approaches, such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) and immune checkpoint blockade antibodies, that are clinically approved approaches for cancer therapy. Although currently approved IO approaches have shown tremendous promise for select types of cancers, broad application of IO strategies could even further improve the clinical success, especially for diseases such as pancreatic cancer, brain tumors where the success of IO so far has been limited. Nanotechnology-based targeted delivery strategies could improve the delivery efficiency of IO agents as well as provide additional avenues for novel therapeutic and vaccination strategies. Additionally, a number of locally-administered immunogenic scaffolds and therapeutic strategies, such as the use of STING agonist, could benefit from rationally designed biomaterials and delivery approaches. Delivery Technologies for Immuno-Oncology: Volume 1: Delivery Strategies and Engineering Technologies in Cancer Immunotherapy creates a comprehensive treaty that engages the scientific and medical community who are involved in the challenges of immunology, cancer biology, and therapeutics with possible solutions from the nanotechnology and drug delivery side. - Comprehensive treaty covering all aspects of immuno-oncology (IO) - Novel strategies for delivery of IO therapeutics and vaccines - Forecasting on the future of nanotechnology and drug delivery for IO

This textbook presents concise chapters written by internationally respected experts on various important aspects of cancer-associated metabolism, offering a comprehensive overview of the central features of this exciting research field. The discovery that tumor cells display characteristic alterations of metabolic pathways has significantly changed our understanding of cancer: while the first description of tumor-specific changes in cellular energetics was published more than 90 years ago, the causal significance of this observation for the pathogenesis of cancer was only discovered in the post-genome era. The first 10 years of the twenty-first century were characterized by rapid advances in our grasp of the functional role of cancer-specific metabolism as well as the underlying molecular pathways. Various unanticipated interrelations between metabolic alterations and cancer-driving pathways were identified and currently await translation into diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Yet the speed, quantity, and complexity of these new discoveries make it difficult for researchers to keep up to date with the latest developments, an issue this book helps to remedy.

The four sections of this book cover cell and molecular biology of tumor metabolism, metabolites, tumor microenvironment, diagnostics and epigenetics. Written by international experts, it provides a thorough insight into and understanding of tumor cell metabolism and its role in tumor biology. The book is intended for scientists in cancer cell and molecular biology, scientists in drug and diagnostic development, as well as for clinicians and oncologists.

Several fundamentally important questions form the basis for this book. What are the relationships between tumour formation and tumour pH? What are the effects of tumour pH and hypoxia on carcinogenesis or tumorigenesis? What are the therapeutic consequences of tumour pH? It is hypothesised that low extracellular pH is not only an important consequence of tumour growth but may also promote further tumorigenic transformation. Furthermore, in vitro studies suggest that low pH strongly affects the efficacy of chemo- and radiotherapy. Better understanding of the influence of pH on tumour growth, coupled with manipulation of the pH of the tumour microenvironment, may lead to the development of more effective therapies.