Primary liver cancer is a solid malignancy with a high mortality rate. The success
of immunotherapy has shown great promise in improving patient care and highlights
a crucial need to understand the complexity of the liver tumor immune microenvironment
(TIME). Recent advances in single-cell and spatial omics technologies, coupled with
the development of systems biology approaches, are rapidly transforming the landscape
of tumor immunology. Here we review the cellular landscape of liver TIME from single-cell
and spatial perspectives. We also discuss the cellular interaction networks within
the tumor cell community in regulating immune responses. We further highlight the
challenges and opportunities with implications for biomarker discovery, patient stratification,
and combination immunotherapies.
Keywords
liver cancer - tumor immune microenvironment - immunotherapy - single cell and spatial
omics - tumor heterogeneity