Cancer Management and Research (Mar 2022)
Immunotherapy in Combination with Well-Established Treatment Strategies in Pancreatic Cancer: Current Insights
Abstract
Christo Kole,1 Nikolaos Charalampakis,2 Sergios Tsakatikas,2 Maximos Frountzas,3 Konstantinos Apostolou,1 Dimitrios Schizas1 1First Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laikon General Hospital, Athens, 115 27, Greece; 2Department of Medical Oncology, Metaxa Cancer Hospital, Athens, 185 37, Greece; 3First Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Hippocration General Hospital, Athens, 115 27, GreeceCorrespondence: Dimitrios Schizas, First Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laikon General Hospital, Athens, 115 27, Greece, Tel +306944505917, Fax +302132061766, Email [email protected]: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer and fourth most common cause of death in developed countries. Despite improved survival rates after resection combined with adjuvant chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, recurrence still occurs in a high percentage of patients within the first 2 years after resection. Immunotherapy aims to improve antitumor immune responses and reduce toxicity providing a more specific, targeted therapy compared to chemotherapy and has been proved an efficient therapeutic tool for many solid tumors. In this work, we present the latest advances in PDAC treatment using a combination of immunotherapy with other interventions such as chemotherapy and/or radiation both at neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting. Moreover, we outline the role of the tumor microenvironment as a key barrier to immunotherapy efficacy and examine how immunotherapy biomarkers may be used to detect immunotherapy’s response.Keywords: pancreatic cancer, immunotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, adoptive cellular immunotherapy, microsatellite instability
