Directing T-Cell Immune Responses for Cancer Vaccination and Immunotherapy

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 12; p. 1392
• Main Authors: Smith, Peter Lawrence, Piadel, Katarzyna, Dalgleish, Angus George
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 25.11.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenosine; Antigens; Apoptosis; Cancer; Cancer immunotherapy; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; checkpoint inhibition; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Effector cells; Epigenetics; Genotype & phenotype; Growth factors; Immune response; Immune response (cell-mediated); Immune system; Immunotherapy; Infections; Inflammation; Lymphocytes T; Medical prognosis; microbiome; Microenvironments; Older people; Pancreatic cancer; Patients; Proteins; Review; Senescence; T-cell; Transcription factors; Tumorigenesis; Tumors; Vaccination; vaccine; Viral infections; vaccine; T-cell; checkpoint inhibition; immunotherapy; cancer; metabolism; microbiome
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines9121392

Cancer vaccination and immunotherapy revolutionised the treatment of cancer, a result of decades of research into the immune system in health and disease. However, despite recent breakthroughs in treating otherwise terminal cancer, only a minority of patients respond to cancer immunotherapy and some cancers are largely refractive to immunotherapy treatment. This is due to numerous issues intrinsic to the tumour, its microenvironment, or the immune system. CD4 and CD8 αβ T-cells emerged as the primary effector cells of the anti-tumour immune response but their function in cancer patients is often compromised. This review details the mechanisms by which T-cell responses are hindered in the setting of cancer and refractive to immunotherapy, and details many of the approaches under investigation to direct T-cell function and improve the efficacy of cancer vaccination and immunotherapy.