The new era of prostate-specific membrane antigen-directed immunotherapies and beyond in advanced prostate cancer: a review

Abstract

The lack of success in prostate cancer from immune checkpoint inhibitors, which is likely multifactorial, has led to the development and investigation of a number of other novel immunotherapeutic techniques, including antibody–drug conjugates, T-cell redirected bispecific therapies, cancer vaccines and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a tumour-associated antigen (TAA) that is highly expressed in metastatic prostate cancer and has been validated as an effective target for radionuclide treatment. But while PSMA has thus far been the ‘front runner’ target for these novel immunotherapeutic techniques, it may not be the ideal target for immunotherapy and there are other potential targetable TAAs that will require further exploration. This review will focus on these various PSMA-directed therapies, as well as other potential targets for immunotherapy beyond PSMA.