Current approaches to immunotherapy in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies

Abstract

Noncolorectal gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies are among the most frequently diagnosed cancers. Despite the undeniable progress in systemic treatments in recent decades, further improvements using cytotoxic chemotherapy seem unlikely. In this setting, recent discoveries regarding the mechanism underlying immune evasion have prompted the study of molecules capable of inducing strong antitumor responses. Thus, according to early data, immunotherapy is a very promising tool for the treatment of patients with GI malignancies. Noncolorectal GI cancers are a major public health problem worldwide. Traditional treatment options, such as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, monoclonal antibodies and antiangiogenic agents, have been the backbone of treatment for various stages of GI cancers, but overall mortality remains a major problem. Thus, there is a substantial unmet need for new drugs and therapies to further improve the outcomes of treatment for noncolorectal GI malignancies. “Next-generation” immunotherapy is emerging as an effective and promising treatment option in several types of cancers. Therefore, encouraged by this recent success, many clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors and other strategies in treating noncolorectal GI malignancies are ongoing. This review will summarize the current clinical progress of modern immunotherapy in the field of noncolorectal GI tumors.

The Expression of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors PDL-1 and CTLA-4 in Pancreatic Versus Non-Pancreatic Periampullary Adenocarcinoma: An Immunohistochemical Study

“…In the last years, the research has approached great achievements in the way to understand the intersection between immune surveillance and tumor initiation and progression, and the concept which has installed novel effective therapeutic tools in many cancer types (Jesus et al, 2018). The overall survival and prognosis of many solid tumors as melanoma, non-small lung carcinoma, and hematologic malignancies have been significantly improved after the introduction of such immunotherapeutic modalities (Kalbasi and Ribas, 2020).…”