Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jan:214:115145.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2024.115145. Epub 2024 Nov 23.

Cancer immunotherapy in elderly patients: The concept of immune senescence challenged by clinical experience

Mathilde Guégan  1 , Malvina Bichon  1 , Nathalie Chaput  2 , Roch Houot  1 , Jean Lemoine  3
Affiliations
Free article
Review

Cancer immunotherapy in elderly patients: The concept of immune senescence challenged by clinical experience

Mathilde Guégan et al. Eur J Cancer. 2025 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy and bispecific antibodies, has led to major improvements in the treatment of a wide range of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. However, age-mediated immune system modifications, known as immunosenescence, may preclude its efficacy in elderly patients. In this review, we assessed the efficacy of these different cancer immunotherapies in elderly patients compared to young patients to revisit the concept of immunosenescence from a therapeutic perspective.

Keywords: Aging; Antibodies; Bispecific; Cancer; Chimeric Antigen; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Immunosenescence; Immunotherapy; Receptor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: N.C. has provided expertise through participation in scientific advisory boards to AstraZeneca and to Servier and received a research grant from Cytune Pharma, Roche, and Sanofi, although these grants were not on the matter of this manuscript. R.H. has received honoraria from Kite/Gilead, Novartis, Incyte, Janssen, MSD, Takeda and Roche; and is a member on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees of Kite/Gilead, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene, ADC Therapeutics, Incyte and Miltenyi. M.G., M.B. and J.L. declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Substances