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A fresh look at tumor immunosurveillance and immunotherapy

Nature Immunology volume 2, pages 293–299 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite major advances in our understanding of adaptive immunity and dendritic cells, consistent and durable responses to cancer vaccines remain elusive and active immunotherapy is still not an established treatment modality. The key to developing an effective anti-tumor response is understanding why, initially, the immune system is unable to detect transformed cells and is subsequently tolerant of tumor growth and metastasis. Ineffective antigen presentation limits the adaptive immune response; however, we are now learning that the host's innate immune system may first fail to recognize the tumor as posing a danger. Recent descriptions of stress-induced ligands on tumor cells recognized by innate effector cells, new subsets of T cells that regulate tumor tolerance and the development of spontaneous tumors in mice that lack immune effector molecules, beckon a reflection on our current perspectives on the interaction of transformed cells with the immune system and offer new hope of stimulating therapeutic immunity to cancer.

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Figure 1: The adaptive immune response to tumor-derived TAAs such as MAGE1 and MART1 in melanoma.
Figure 2: Recognition of transformed cells by the innate immune system.
Figure 3: Mechanisms for tumor tolerance.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria. D. I. G. is a recipient of an ADCORP-Diabetes Australia Research Fellowship and donations from Rothschild Australia. Special thanks to L. Lanier for his critique of this review.

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  1. Cancer Immunology, Trescowthick Laboratories, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Locked Bag 1, A'Beckett St, 8006, Australia

    Mark J. Smyth & Joseph A. Trapani

  2. Department of Pathology and Immunology, Monash Medical School, Commercial Road, Prahran, Australia

    Dale I. Godfrey

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Smyth, M., Godfrey, D. & Trapani, J. A fresh look at tumor immunosurveillance and immunotherapy. Nat Immunol 2, 293–299 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/86297

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