Towards Curative Cancer Immunotherapy: Overcoming Posttherapy Tumor Escape
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed the evolvement of cancer immunotherapy as an increasingly effective therapeutic modality, evidenced by the approval of two immune-based products by the FDA, that is, the cancer vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T) for prostate cancer and the antagonist antibody against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) ipilimumab for advanced melanoma. In addition, the clinical evaluations of a variety of promising immunotherapy drugs are well under way. Benefiting from more efficacious immunotherapeutic agents and treatment strategies, a number of recent clinical studies have achieved unprecedented therapeutic outcomes in some patients with certain types of cancers. Despite these advances, however, the efficacy of most cancer immunotherapies currently under clinical development has been modest. A recurring scenario is that therapeutic maneuvers initially led to measurable antitumor immune responses in cancer patients but ultimately failed to improve patient outcomes. It is increasingly recognized that tumor cells can antagonize therapy-induced immune attacks through a variety of counterregulation mechanisms, which represent a fundamental barrier to the success of cancer immunotherapy. Herein we summarize the findings from some recent preclinical and clinical studies, focusing on how tumor cells advance their survival and expansion by hijacking therapy-induced immune effector mechanisms that would otherwise mediate their destruction.Citation
Clin Dev Immunol. 2012 May 31; 2012:124187ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1155/2012/124187
Scopus Count
Related articles
- Combination of cancer immunotherapy with clinically available drugs that can block immunosuppressive cells.
- Authors: Kim SJ, Ha GH, Kim SH, Kang CD
- Issue date: 2014
- Immunomodulating and Immunoresistance Properties of Cancer-Initiating Cells: Implications for the Clinical Success of Immunotherapy.
- Authors: Maccalli C, Parmiani G, Ferrone S
- Issue date: 2017 Apr
- Current perspectives on immunotherapy.
- Authors: Weber JS
- Issue date: 2014 Oct
- The role of oncolytic virus immunotherapies to subvert cancer immune evasion.
- Authors: Workenhe ST, Verschoor ML, Mossman KL
- Issue date: 2015
- Effective immunotherapy against cancer: a question of overcoming immune suppression and immune escape?
- Authors: Malmberg KJ
- Issue date: 2004 Oct