Current situation and trends in blockade of targeted immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

The blockade of targeted immune checkpoint is one of the most promising approaches to activate therapeutic antitu-mor immunity. The immune checkpoint refers to a plethora of inhibitory pathways in the immune system. These pathways are crucial for maintaining self-tolerance and modulating the duration and amplitude of physiological immune responses in peripheral tissues to minimize collateral tissue damage. Tumors co-opt certain immune-checkpoint pathways as a major mechanism of immune resistance. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 antibodies were the first of this class of immunotherapeutics to acquire approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. Preliminary clinical findings with blockers of additional immune-checkpoint proteins, such as pro-grammed cell death protein 1, indicate broad and diverse opportunities to enhance anti-tumor immunity with the potential to produce du-rable clinical responses. Classic chemotherapy exerts significant immunomodulatory effects on tumor cells via multiple mechanisms. Therefore, the combination of immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint blockade with chemotherapy, is a new promising trend in anti-tumor immunotherapy.