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Review
. 2020 Jan 15;21(2):556.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21020556.

Possibilities of Improving the Clinical Value of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapies in Cancer Care by Optimizing Patient Selection

Sanna Iivanainen  1 , Jussi P Koivunen  1
Affiliations
Review

Possibilities of Improving the Clinical Value of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapies in Cancer Care by Optimizing Patient Selection

Sanna Iivanainen et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapies have become the most important medical therapies in many malignancies, such as melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, and urogenital cancers. However, due to generally low response rates of PD-(L)1 monotherapy, both PD-(L)1 combination therapies and novel therapeutics are under large-scale clinical evaluation. Thus far, clinical trials have rather suboptimally defined the patient population most likely to benefit from ICI therapy, and there is an unmet need for negative predictive markers aiming to reduce the number of non-responding patients in clinical practice. Furthermore, there is a strong need for basic tumor immunology research and innovative clinical trials to fully unleash the potential of ICI combinations for the benefit of patients.

Keywords: PD-L1; biomarker; cancer immunotherapy; cost-effectiveness; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immune-related adverse events; predictive.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanism of immune checkpoint blockade through CTLA-4 and PD-L1/PD-1 pathways.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Therapeutic rationale of combinatory treatments based on hallmarks of cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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