The Role of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are getting attention in the field of cancer immunotherapy. The main effects of MSCs on tumors are homing and regulation of inflammatory and immune responses. Indeed, cancer immunotherapy has become a promising treatment and MSCs play a potential role in regulating the efficacy of immunotherapy. In addition, MSCs are an ideal carrier for immunomodulatory protein transmission. As such MSCs combined with immunotherapy drugs could act synergistically against tumors, throwing a great impact on cancer therapy. And MSCs may have potential in the treatment of cytokine storm or cytokine release syndrome (CRS). It is assumed that MSCs can form chimeric antigen receptor MSCs (CAR-MSCs). Whether CAR-MSCs can provide a new idea of cancer immunotherapy is unknown. It is a prime time to review the latest progress of MSCs in cancer immunotherapy, in order to clarify to fully understand the role of MSCs in cancer therapy in clinical practice.