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A paper uncovers a RAS–RAL GEF signalling pathway that activates AKT and RAL GTPases to promote survival and motility, and which is inhibited by the expression of the anti-inflammatory mediator TIPE2.
Inhibition of the hyaluronic acid scavenger receptor stabilin 2 blocks metastasis by preventing the attachment of tumour cells to lung endothelial cells.
Mutant IDH genes that produce 2-hydroxyglutarate can influence cell transformation through effects on DNA and histone methylation and hypoxia inducible factors.
Stromal cells take up and convert cystine into cysteine, which is used by chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cells to increase glutathione levels and to protect them against increased levels of reactive oxygen species and chemotherapeutic drugs.
Jose Conejo-Garcia and colleagues show that dendritic cells from mice in the early stages of ovarian tumorigenesis are immunocompetent and hinder tumour progression, but that they become immunosuppressive in advanced tumours and promote tumour progression.
Targeted therapies can be used to successfully treat cancer patients, but what are their mechanisms of action? This Review discusses how targeted therapies modulate the immune system and how they can be rationally combined with immunotherapies.
Immune checkpoints refer to the plethora of inhibitory pathways that are crucial to maintaining self-tolerance. Tumour cells induce immune checkpoints to evade immunosurveillance. This Review discusses the progress in targeting immune checkpoints, the considerations for combinatorial therapy and the potential for additional immune-checkpoint targets.
Dendritic cells have far-reaching and important effects on the activation of the immune response; thus, they are used to vaccinate patients with cancer to induce long-term anti-tumour immunity. This Review discusses what we know — and need to know — about dendritic cells to improve how they are used therapeutically.
The development of therapeutic antibodies requires a substantial understanding of cancer serology, protein-engineering techniques, mechanisms of action and resistance, and the interplay between the immune system and cancer cells. This Review outlines the fundamental strategies required to develop antibody therapies for cancer patients.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) represents a crucial immune checkpoint, the blockade of which can potentiate anti-tumour immunity. This treatment in patients with advance prostate cancer may provide insights into the targets that the immune system recognizes to drive tumour regression.
The infiltration of various types of immune cells is common to most tumour microenvironments. As discussed in this Opinion article, the pattern of immune cell infiltration varies between cancer type and individual tumours of the same type, and this pattern can be used to indicate prognosis and response to therapy.
Four leading tumour immunologists provide their opinions on the determinants of immunogenicity and how we might therapeutically improve tumour immunogenicity in the future.
