Immuno-Oncology in Cancer Care is a Fantastic Opportunity for Interventional Oncology: IO4IO (Interventional Oncology for Immuno-Oncology) Initiative

Excerpt

Immuno-oncology is a rapidly expanding weapon in the anti-cancer arsenal of modern oncology. The revolution of immuno-oncology in cancer care is the result of intense research over the past decade in cancer immunology that has provided solid evidence that tumours can be recognised and controlled by the host immune system, a process known as immunosurveillance [1, 2]. Systemic immuno-targeted therapies are now approved treatment options in many cancer types because of their clinical efficacy even in relapsing/refractory patients through different primary cancer locations. These novel immuno drugs allow an enhancement of patients’ anti-cancer immunity, namely by blocking inhibitory pathways and inhibitory cells in the tumour microenvironment. The most common strategy is to use checkpoint inhibitors such as antibodies against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4), programmed death-1 (PD-1) or its ligand, programmed death ligand-1 (PDL-1). Other strategies aim to enhance the specificity of anti-tumour immunity using antibodies directed to well-defined tumour antigens with the help of either cancer vaccines, potent adjuvants or various types of immunomodulating agents, such as pattern recognition receptor agonists, recognising pathogen-associated molecular patterns or immunostimulatory monoclonal antibodies. Oncolytic viruses and peptides are used to release tumour antigens in order to stimulate immunity [3, 4]. Furthermore, in vitro expansion of the patient’s own T-cells, which can be genetically modified for specificity towards a specific tumour-associated antigen called chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T-cells), is also now an FDA-approved therapy in blood cancer. Those therapies are currently used systemically, and experience in their local application mainly refers to melanoma, while local application for solid organ tumours is still insufficiently explored. …