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Review
. 2019 Jan 22;7(2):14.
doi: 10.3390/medsci7020014.

Mechanisms of Primary and Secondary Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Cancer

Tiffany Seto  1 , Danny Sam  2 , Minggui Pan  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Mechanisms of Primary and Secondary Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Cancer

Tiffany Seto et al. Med Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPis) have revolutionized cancer therapy with broad activities against a wide range of malignancies. However, in many malignancies their efficacy remains limited due to the primary resistance. Furthermore, a high percentage of patients develop progression due to the secondary resistance even after obtaining a response or achieving a stable disease. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms that underlie the primary and secondary resistance to ICPis in cancer immunotherapy and provide an overview to impart a broad understanding of the critical issues that are encountered in clinical oncology practice.

Keywords: CTLA4.; Cancer immunotherapy; Immune checkpoint inhibitor; PD-L1; PD1; Primary resistance; Secondary resistance; T cells; TCR.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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