Mark J. Smyth

Research summary

The cancer immunoediting framework is articulated, describing how the immune system both suppresses tumor growth by killing nascent cancer cells and promotes progression by selecting for resistant clones and shaping a permissive tumor microenvironment, integrating two decades of mouse and human evidence into a single elimination-equilibrium-escape model [1]. A companion review of innate and adaptive immunity to cancer details the immune cell types, effector molecules, and pathways that act as extrinsic tumor-suppressor mechanisms and the conditions under which the same components instead support tumor outgrowth [2]. Earlier work reviewed immune surveillance of tumors, summarizing mouse and human data that justified renewed interest in natural anti-tumor immunity as a foundation for combination immunotherapy [4]. A four-category stratification of the tumor microenvironment based on the presence or absence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and PD-L1 expression is proposed as a rational framework for designing combination immunotherapy regimens, distinguishing tumors that need T-cell recruitment from those that need checkpoint blockade or other interventions [3]. Taken together, these contributions formalize the conceptual vocabulary of cancer immunology used to interpret PD-1/PD-L1 axis trials and to rationalize next-generation combination immunotherapy.

Recent publications

1. Cancer Immunoediting: Integrating Immunity’s Roles in Cancer Suppression and Promotion2011 · Science · 6316 citationsDOI
2. Natural Innate and Adaptive Immunity to Cancer2011 · Annual Review of Immunology · 2029 citationsDOI
3. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in dendritic cells induces IL-1β–dependent adaptive immunity against tumors2009 · Nature Medicine · 1821 citationsDOI
4. Cancer immunoediting and resistance to T cell-based immunotherapy2018 · Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology · 1768 citationsDOI
5. Classifying Cancers Based on T-cell Infiltration and PD-L12015 · Cancer Research · 1445 citationsDOI
6. New insights into cancer immunoediting and its three component phases — elimination, equilibrium and escape2014 · Current Opinion in Immunology · 1437 citationsDOI
7. Immune surveillance of tumors2007 · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1433 citationsDOI
8. Adaptive immunity maintains occult cancer in an equilibrium state2007 · Nature · 1385 citationsDOI
9. Translational biology of osteosarcoma2014 · Nature reviews. Cancer · 1303 citationsDOI
10. Type I interferons in anticancer immunity2015 · Nature reviews. Immunology · 1287 citationsDOI

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Email Mark J. Smyth 6-12 months before your application deadline. Read several recent papers and reference specific work in your message. Use our how to email a Japanese professor guide for the proven email structure.

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External profiles

• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7098-7240
• OpenAlex: openalex.org

Profile compiled from public sources (Researchmap, OpenAlex, Kyoto University faculty directory). Last refreshed 2026-05. Report incorrect information.