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Review
. 2020 Feb;9(Suppl 1):S100-S119.
doi: 10.21037/tlcr.2019.11.23.

Immunotherapy for mesothelioma: a critical review of current clinical trials and future perspectives

Steven G Gray  1 , Luciano Mutti  2
Affiliations
Review

Immunotherapy for mesothelioma: a critical review of current clinical trials and future perspectives

Steven G Gray et al. Transl Lung Cancer Res. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

At the clinical level the role of immunotherapy in cancer is currently at a pivotal point. Therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors are being approved at many levels in cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Mesothelioma is a rare orphan disease associated with prior exposure to asbestos, with a dismal prognosis. Various clinical trials for checkpoint inhibitors have been conducted in this rare disease, and suggest that such therapies may play a role as a treatment option for a proportion of patients with this cancer. Most recently approved as a salvage therapy in mesothelioma was granted in Japan, regulatory approval for their use in the clinic elsewhere lags. In this article we review the current pertinent clinical trials of immunotherapies in malignant mesothelioma, discuss the current issues that may affect the clinical outcomes of such therapies and further evaluate potential candidate new avenues that may become future targets for immunotherapy in this cancer.

Keywords: Checkpoint inhibitors; biomarkers; co-stimulatory; dendritic cell; immunotherapy; mesothelioma; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
High expression of B7H3 (CD276) expression/is associated with poorer overall survival in mesothelioma. In silico analysis of OS for B7H3 in the TCGA mesothelioma dataset with the cohort divided at the median of gene expression. Analysis was conducted using ProgGeneV2 (65), and high expression of B7H3 (CD276) was associated with a significantly worse (P=1.9×10−5) overall survival.
Figure 2
Figure 2
High expression of OX40L but not OX40 is associated with poorer overall survival in mesothelioma. In silico analysis of OS was carried out using ProgGeneV2 (65) on the TCGA mesothelioma dataset with the cohort divided at the median of gene expression. (A) No significant OS difference was observed for OX40; (B) when stratified high expression of OX40L was associated with a significantly worse (P=8.4×10−5) overall survival.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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