title: Immunosenescence and cancer.
abstract: Age is a major risk factor for solid cancers, hitherto conventionally viewed in the context of the cell biology of carcinogenesis. However, if cancers are immunogenic, the immune system could protect against tumorigenesis ("immunosurveillance"), and vaccination or other immunomodulatory treatments should be therapeutically beneficial, as has been recently dramatically documented in a fraction of patients with certain tumors responding to immune checkpoint blockade. This begs the question that if immunity decreases with age ("immunosenescence"), this may contribute to increased cancer disease in the elderly and a lower likelihood of clinical benefit from immunotherapy. This brief review weighs up the evidence for and against a negative impact of immunosenescence on cancer control.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Medical Research, ZMF, University of Tübingen Medical School, Waldhörnlestr. 22, 72072, Tübingen, Germany. graham.pawelec@uni-tuebingen.de.|John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. graham.pawelec@uni-tuebingen.de.|Division of Cancer Studies, King's College London, London, UK. graham.pawelec@uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: Graham
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3600-0163
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pawelec
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology; D000074322:Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D000068884:Immunosenescence; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors; D019139:Tumor Escape
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D000074322:Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; D019496:Cancer Vaccines
keywords: Cancer immunotherapy; Checkpoint blockade; Immunosenescence; Ipilimumab; Neoantigen