title: Mechanisms of tumor escape in the context of the T-cell-inflamed and the non-T-cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment.
abstract: Checkpoint blockade therapy has been proven to be highly active across many cancer types but emerging evidence indicates that the therapeutic benefit is limited to a subset of patients in each cancer entity. The presence of CD8(+) T cells within the tumor microenvironment or the invasive margin of the tumor, as well as the up-regulation of PD-L1, have emerged to be the most predictive biomarkers for clinical benefit in response to checkpoint inhibition. Although the up-regulation of immune inhibitory mechanisms is one mechanism of immune escape, commonly used by T-cell-inflamed tumors, exclusion of an anti-tumor specific T-cell infiltrate displays another even more potent mechanism of immune escape. This review will contrast the mechanisms of immunogenic, T-cell-inflamed, and the novel concept of non-immunogenic, non-T-cell-inflamed, adaptive immune escape.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago, GCIS W423H, Chicago, IL 60637, USA sspranger@bsd.uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Stefani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spranger
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology*; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D019139:Tumor Escape; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
keywords: checkpoint blockade; immune evasion; immunotherapy; oncogenes