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An immunosuppressive pathway for tumor progression

Nature Medicine volume 24, pages 260–261 (2018)Cite this article

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An active immunosuppressive pathway is identified in colon cancer that confers immune evasion by the cancer and can be targeted to synergize with immunotherapies.

Recent years have seen a shift in the focus of cancer therapy development, with more therapies, known as immunotherapies, being developed that stimulate the capacity of immune effectors such as T cells to attack and eliminate tumor cells. Many immune therapies target inhibitory receptors or pathways that prevent or limit antitumor T cell responses and so reactivate immune cells. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is a strategy that directly targets T cells and stimulates them. For example, anti-PD-1 antibodies repress the PD-1 immunosuppressive pathway and thereby lower the T cell activation threshold upon T cell receptor (TCR) engagement in the tumor environment1. In preclinical models and in clinical trials, ICB is now often combined with agonistic antibodies raised against activating receptors on T cells or with other immune-stimulatory cocktails, with the aim to find drug formulations that induce the optimal immune responses with minimal side effects.

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Figure 1: A targetable immunosuppressive pathway promoting tumor progression.

Marina Corral Spence/Springer Nature

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, Lyon, France

    Antoine Marçais & Thierry Walzer

  2. INSERM, Lyon, U1111, France

    Antoine Marçais & Thierry Walzer

  3. École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Antoine Marçais & Thierry Walzer

  4. Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France

    Antoine Marçais & Thierry Walzer

  5. CNRS, Lyon, UMR 5308, France

    Antoine Marçais & Thierry Walzer

Authors
  1. Antoine Marçais
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  2. Thierry Walzer
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Correspondence to Thierry Walzer.

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Marçais, A., Walzer, T. An immunosuppressive pathway for tumor progression. Nat Med 24, 260–261 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4508

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