AUTHOR=Zemek Rachael M. , Chin Wee Loong , Nowak Anna K. , Millward Michael J. , Lake Richard A. , Lesterhuis W. Joost 

TITLE=Sensitizing the Tumor Microenvironment to Immune Checkpoint Therapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00223

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2020.00223

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Immune checkpoint blockade has revolutionized cancer treatment, providing remarkable clinical responses in some patients. However, the majority of patients do not respond. It is therefore crucial both to identify predictive biomarkers of response, and to increase the response rates to immune checkpoint therapy. In this review, we explore the current literature about the predictive characteristics of the tumour microenvironment and discuss therapeutic approaches that aim to change this towards a milieu that is conducive to response. Lastly, we propose a personalized biomarker-based adaptive approach to immunotherapy, whereby a sensitizing therapy is tailored to the patient’s specific tumour microenvironment, followed by on-treatment verification of a change in the targeted biomarker, followed by immune checkpoint therapy. By incorporating detailed knowledge of the immunological tumour microenvironment, we may be able to sensitize currently non-responsive tumours to respond to immune checkpoint therapy.