The tumor-promoting effects of the adaptive immune system: a cause of hyperprogressive disease in cancer?

We describe the basic mechanisms that underlie tumor-promoting adaptive immune responses and try to identify the variables that induce the switching of a tumor-inhibitory, cellular or humoral immune response, into a tumor-promoting one. We suggest that tumor-promoting adaptive immune responses may be at the origin of at least a fraction of hyperprogressive diseases (HPD) that are observed in cancer patients during therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and, less frequently, with single-agent chemotherapy. We also propose the use of non-invasive biomarkers allowing to predict which patients may undergo HPD during ICI and other forms of antitumor therapy. Eventually, we suggest possibilities of therapeutic intervention allowing to inhibit tumor-promoting adaptive immune responses. PMID: 32940721 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences : CMLS - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: Cell Mol Life Sci Source Type: research