Impact of androgen-deprivation therapy on the immune system: implications for combination therapy of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in American men. Standard therapeutic strategies for systemic disease include androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and chemotherapy, both of which are palliative. However, there is a growing interest in the use of immunotherapy for prostate cancer. Evidence suggests that ADT may 1) enhance lymphopoiesis and thus potentially improve immune responses to vaccine, 2) renew thymopoiesis and thus reverse age-induced thymic involution, 3) augment B-cell development, and 4) mitigate tolerance to prostate cancer antigens. Although no vaccines are currently approved for prostate cancer, there are many promising agents under investigation. This review focuses on recent findings on immune regulation by androgens and immune-system regeneration with ADT, with emphasis on the rationale for the combination of ADT and vaccines in the clinical treatment of prostate cancer.
Aragon-Ching
Jeanny B
JB
Medical Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Williams
Kirsten M
KM
Gulley
James L
JL
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D000726:Androgen Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000502:physiology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D000726:Androgen Antagonists; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D011944:Receptors, Androgen