Combining vaccines and immune checkpoint inhibitors to prime, expand, and facilitate effective tumor immunotherapy.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Multiple immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that modulate immune cells in the periphery and the tumor microenvironment (TME) have been approved, as have the therapeutic cancer vaccines sipuleucel-T for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) for metastatic melanoma. These developments provide rationale for combining these modalities to improve response rates and durability of responses in a variety of cancers. Preclinical data have shown that vaccines can induce immune responses that turn a tumor from 'cold' to 'hot,' but vaccines do not appear to be highly active as monotherapy.

Areas covered

Here, we provide a review of the current state of vaccine and ICI combination studies.

Expert commentary

Most combinat

SUBMITTER: Collins JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8262093 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature