February 26, 2016 (Discovery Medicine)
Cancer is an ever-changing tissue that uses different strategies to grow and expand. One of these strategies is avoiding immunity. Even though the immune system is capable of recognizing and fighting cancer, the immune response fails because cancer will eventually suppress the immunity.
Scientists have been studying the relationship between immunity and cancer for the past few decades.
Immune checkpoint therapy blocks immune checkpoint pathways and reactivates the antitumor response. Clinical trials including melanoma, NSCLC, renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma showed promising results with this type of therapy. The fundamental issue is to identify the predictive biomarkers to identify the patients that will benefit from immune checkpoint therapy.
Engineered T cell therapy has a promising future due to the results seen in patients with B cell malignancies. Genetically modified T cells are developed to combat immune suppression and reintroduced back into the patient. CAR T cells have been shown to eradicate tumors. Long-term remission has been shown with anti-CD19 CAR T cell infusion.
Recent developments in tumor suppression therapies are revitalizing the possibilities of cancer vaccines that stimulate the immune system. Cancer vaccines are promising because they can be directed against antigens that are shared by different cancers. The hope is that vaccines in combination with immunotherapy and other targeted therapies will be beneficial to patients.
Read the complete systematic review “Advances in Cancer Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy” on Discovery Medicine.
