The interplay of immunotherapy and chemotherapy: harnessing potential synergies.
Although cancer chemotherapy has historically been considered immune suppressive, it is now accepted that certain chemotherapies can augment tumor immunity. The recent success of immune checkpoint inhibitors has renewed interest in immunotherapies, and in combining them with chemotherapy to achieve additive or synergistic clinical activity. Two major ways that chemotherapy promotes tumor immunity are by inducing immunogenic cell death as part of its intended therapeutic effect and by disrupting strategies that tumors use to evade immune recognition. This second strategy, in particular, is dependent on the drug, its dose, and the schedule of chemotherapy administration in relation to antigen exposure or release. In this Cancer Immunology at the Crossroads article, we focus on cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint blockade as a forum for reviewing preclinical and clinical data demonstrating the interplay between immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Baltimore, Maryland. emensle@jhmi.edu G.Middleton@bham.ac.uk.
Leisha A
LA
Emens
Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Centre, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom. emensle@jhmi.edu G.Middleton@bham.ac.uk.
Gary
G
Middleton
D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019496:Cancer Vaccines