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Review
. 2018 Feb;9(1):160-169.
doi: 10.21037/jgo.2018.01.17.

Updates on immunotherapy for colorectal cancer

Aparna Kalyan  1   2 , Sheetal Kircher  2 , Hiral Shah  1   2 , Mary Mulcahy  2 , Al Benson  2
Affiliations
Review

Updates on immunotherapy for colorectal cancer

Aparna Kalyan et al. J Gastrointest Oncol. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Despite significant advances in standard of care therapies, the 5-year survival rate for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) remains around 12%. Immunotherapy has not provided the stellar advances in colorectal cancer that has been seen in other malignancies. Immunotherapy appears to play a pivotal role in microsatellite unstable CRC tumors where the response rates are profound. These results have led to FDA approval of pembrolizumab for MSI-H CRC tumors. Additional research into several new immune agents including IDO inhibitors, vaccine therapy and combinatorial agents are being evaluated for CRC. This review will provide an overview of the approaches currently being investigated.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer (CRC); immunotherapy; microsatellite instability (MSI); vaccine therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: A Benson receives research contribution from Merck, Bristol Meyers Squibb, AstraZeneca/Medimmune. He is scientific advisor for Genentech, Merck, AstraZeneca and Bristol Meyers-Squibb. A Kalyan receives research funding from Bristol Meyers Squibb. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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