Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Cancer

Antitumour immunity gets a boost

Nature volume 515, pages 496–498 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Five papers extend the list of cancers that respond to therapies that restore antitumour immunity by blocking the PD-1 pathway, and characterize those patients who respond best. See Letters p.558, p.563, p.568, p.572 & p.577

The concept that the immune system has a role in controlling cancer is not a recent one. More than a century ago, the surgeon William Coley hypothesized that postoperative bacterial infections could mobilize a patient's own resistance to tumour recurrence, and he developed a mixture of heat-killed bacteria for intratumoral injection that occasionally produced durable regressions1. More recently, the elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying immune regulation has been instrumental in devising strategies to overcome cancer cells' ability to suppress the immune surveillance that would otherwise protect the host from tumour progression2,3,4. One approach to activating these antitumour immune responses has been termed 'checkpoint blockade' — referring to the use of antibodies that block immune-inhibitory pathways switched on by cancer cells. Five papers published in this issue5,6,7,8,9 reveal a growing list of cancers that respond to checkpoint blockade and describe characteristics of those patients who respond to such therapies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Checkpoint blockade activates antitumour immunity.

References

  1. Coley, W. B. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 3, 1–48 (1910).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Dunn, G. P., Bruce, A. T., Ikeda, H., Old, L. J. & Schreiber, R. D. Nature Immunol. 3, 991–998 (2002).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Koebel, C. M. et al. Nature 450, 903–907 (2007).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shankaran, V. et al. Nature 410, 1107–1111 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Powles, T. et al. Nature 515, 558–562 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Herbst, R. S. et al. Nature 515, 563–567 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tumeh, P. C. et al. Nature 515, 568–571 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yadav, M. et al. Nature 515, 572–576 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gubin, M. M. et al. Nature 515, 577–581 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Page, D. B., Postow, M. A., Callahan, M. K., Allison, J. P. & Wolchok, J. D. Annu. Rev. Med. 65, 185–202 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Robert, C. et al. Lancet 384, 1109–1117 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Topalian, S. L. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 32, 1020–1030 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wolchok, J. D. et al. Ann. Oncol. 24, 2174–2180 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Brahmer, J. R. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 366, 2455–2465 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Topalian, S. L. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 366, 2443–2454 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hamid, O. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 369, 134–144 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Taube, J. M. et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 4, 127ra37 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Brahmer, J. R. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 28, 3167–3175 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Matsushita, H. et al. Nature 482, 400–404 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Duan, F. et al. J. Exp. Med. 211, 2231–2248 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Snyder, A. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1406498 (2014).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jedd D. Wolchok is in the Department of Medicine and the Ludwig Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA.,

    Jedd D. Wolchok

  2. Timothy A. Chan is in the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.,

    Timothy A. Chan

Authors
  1. Jedd D. Wolchok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timothy A. Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jedd D. Wolchok.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wolchok, J., Chan, T. Antitumour immunity gets a boost. Nature 515, 496–498 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/515496a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/515496a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer