The cancer-immunity cycle: Indication, genotype, and immunotype

• Published in: Immunity (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 56; no. 10; pp. 2188 - 2205
• Main Authors: Mellman, Ira, Chen, Daniel S., Powles, Thomas, Turley, Shannon J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 10.10.2023
• ISSN: 1074-7613; 1097-4180; 1097-4180
• DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.09.011

The cancer-immunity cycle provides a framework to understand the series of events that generate anti-cancer immune responses. It emphasizes the iterative nature of the response where the killing of tumor cells by T cells initiates subsequent rounds of antigen presentation and T cell stimulation, maintaining active immunity and adapting it to tumor evolution. Any step of the cycle can become rate-limiting, rendering the immune system unable to control tumor growth. Here, we update the cancer-immunity cycle based on the remarkable progress of the past decade. Understanding the mechanism of checkpoint inhibition has evolved, as has our view of dendritic cells in sustaining anti-tumor immunity. We additionally account for the role of the tumor microenvironment in facilitating, not just suppressing, the anti-cancer response, and discuss the importance of considering a tumor’s immunological phenotype, the “immunotype”. While these new insights add some complexity to the cycle, they also provide new targets for research and therapeutic intervention. The cancer-immunity cycle provides a framework to understand the events that generate anti-cancer immune responses. Mellman, Chen, Powles, and Turley consider the last 10 years of research in cancer immunology and immunotherapy and review the progress in understanding each step of the cancer-immunity cycle, identifying challenges and opportunities for the next decade.