Metabolic reprogramming of immune cells and metabolic intervention in cutaneous tumors

Immunotherapy has achieved notable advancements in the treatment of cutaneous malignancies. However, challenges such as low response rates and frequent drug resistance remain. The metabolic characteristics of immune cells are closely linked to their fate, activation, and function, exhibiting remarkable plasticity that enables metabolic networks to finely regulate immune cell responses to external stimuli. Consequently, targeting metabolic networks to modulate immune cell phenotypes and augment antitumor immunity has emerged as a pivotal avenue for clinical translation. This article systematically elucidates the functional roles of glucose, lipid, and amino acid metabolic reprogramming in immune cells. It summarizes ongoing clinical trials of metabolic immunotherapy for treating melanoma, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), while discussing unresolved challenges in the clinical translation of metabolic therapy. This provides theoretical support and research directions for novel metabolic therapeutic strategies.