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.

  • In Brief
  • Published:

Cancer immunotherapy

Time of day determines cancer immunotherapy response

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 24, page 378 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Wang et al. show that immune cell infiltration of tumours, as well as immune cell phenotype, oscillate in a circadian manner, which can be harnessed to optimize cancer immunotherapy. In a mouse model of melanoma, the numbers of tumour infiltrating leukocytes (TILs) peaked in the evening, and this was due to fluctuating levels of the adhesion molecule ICAM-1 on endothelial cells. Treatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in the evening, as compared to the morning, induced greater tumour shrinkage. Moreover, surface expression of the checkpoint molecule PD1 on CD8+ T cells peaked in the evening, and in mouse models of melanoma and colon carcinoma, treatment with PD1-targeted antibodies showed an effect in the evening but not in the morning. Similar time-of-day differences in TIL number and phenotype were found in humans with melanoma, albeit phase-shifted, as expected for diurnal humans versus nocturnal mice. The implications of these results with regards to timing of immunotherapy will need to be tested in future clinical trials.

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

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

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

References

Original article

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Reviews Immunology http://www.nature.com/nri/

    Alexandra Flemming

Authors
  1. Alexandra Flemming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Flemming.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Flemming, A. Time of day determines cancer immunotherapy response. Nat Rev Immunol 24, 378 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-024-01046-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-024-01046-0

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