title: Anti-CD73 in cancer immunotherapy: awakening new opportunities.
abstract: In recent years, cancer immunotherapy made significant advances due to a better understanding of the principles underlying tumor biology and immunology. In this context, CD73 is a key molecule, since via degradation of adenosine monophosphate into adenosine, endorses the generation of an immunosuppressed and pro-angiogenic niche within the tumor microenvironment that promotes the onset and progression of cancer. Targeting CD73 results in favorable antitumor effects in pre-clinical models and combined treatments of CD73 blockade with other immune-modulating agents (i.e. anti-CTLA-4 mAb or anti-PD1 mAb) is particularly attractive. Although there is still a long way to go, anti-CD73 therapy, through the development of CD73 monoclonal antibodies, can potentially constitute a new biologic therapy for cancer patients. In this review, we discuss the link between CD73 and the onset, development and spread of tumors, highlighting the potential value of this molecule as a target and as a novel biomarker in the context of personalized cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; Department of Surgery and Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Antonioli
authors.affiliation: Medicity Research Laboratory, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Gennady G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Yegutkin
authors.affiliation: Section on Oxidative Stress Tissue Injury, Laboratories of Physiological Studies, National Institutes of Health/NIAAA, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Pál
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blandizzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Haskó
keywords: CD73; adenosine; cancer; immunotherapy; tumor microenvironment