title: The future of immune checkpoint therapy.
abstract: Immune checkpoint therapy, which targets regulatory pathways in T cells to enhance antitumor immune responses, has led to important clinical advances and provided a new weapon against cancer. This therapy has elicited durable clinical responses and, in a fraction of patients, long-term remissions where patients exhibit no clinical signs of cancer for many years. The way forward for this class of novel agents lies in our ability to understand human immune responses in the tumor microenvironment. This will provide valuable information regarding the dynamic nature of the immune response and regulation of additional pathways that will need to be targeted through combination therapies to provide survival benefit for greater numbers of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. Genitourinary Medical Oncology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. padsharma@mdanderson.org jallison@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Padmanee
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. padsharma@mdanderson.org jallison@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allison
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D054316:Biomarkers, Pharmacological; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000276:immunology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D060889:Inducible T-Cell Co-Stimulator Protein / Q000276:immunology; D000074324:Ipilimumab; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D000077594:Nivolumab; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D054316:Biomarkers, Pharmacological; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen; C556706:CTLA4 protein, human; D060889:Inducible T-Cell Co-Stimulator Protein; D000074324:Ipilimumab; D000077594:Nivolumab; C582435:pembrolizumab