Improving the efficacy of immunotherapy for colorectal cancer: Targeting tumor microenvironment-associated immunosuppressive cells

Abstract

Currently, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the treatment paradigm for many malignant tumors. As the most common digestive tract malignancy, colorectal cancer (CRC) shows a good response to ICIs only in a small subset of patients with MSI-H/dMMR CRC. In contrast, patients with MSS/pMMR CRC show minimal response to ICIs. The results of the REGONIVO study suggest that targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME) to improve immunotherapy outcomes in MSS/pMMR CRC patients is a feasible strategy. Therefore, this article focuses on exploring the feasibility of targeting the TME to enhance immunotherapy outcomes in CRC, collecting recent basic research on targeting the TME to enhance immunotherapy outcomes in CRC and analyzing ongoing clinical trials to provide a theoretical basis and future research directions for improving immunotherapy outcomes in MSS/pMMR CRC.