Journal of Cancer Immunology

Commentary Open Access

Aromatase Inhibitors and their Connection to Autoimmunity

Savannah Bowman, Carlos H Barcenas, Huifang Lu

The aromatase inhibitors (AIs) anastrozole, letrozole, and exemestane are often prescribed as endocrine therapy for patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. AIs are associated with musculoskeletal side effects such as bone loss, arthralgias, myalgias, and tenosynovitis. Notably, exemestane is a steroidal AI and both anastrozole and letrozole are non-steroidal AIs. 

Research Article Open Access

Perioperative Immune Checkpoint Blockade for Muscle-Invasive and Metastatic Bladder Cancer

Chethan Ramamurthy, Karen M. Wheeler, Shaun Trecarten, Zaineb Hassouneh, Niannian Ji, Yifen Lee, Robert S. Svatek, Neelam Mukherjee

Checkpoint inhibitors offer promise in treating muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer, but the optimal timing of their administration—neoadjuvant or adjuvant—remains unclear. To determine the efficacy of combining checkpoint inhibition with standard cisplatin-based chemotherapy, we conducted a phase II trial of neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 (αPD-1) and anti-CTLA-4 (αCTLA-4), in combination with cisplatin-gemcitabine, for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer prior to radical cystectomy. 

Commentary Open Access

Enhancing the Efficacy of CAR-T Cell Therapy: A Comprehensive Exploration of Cellular Strategies and Molecular Dynamics

Mehmet A. Baysal, Abhijit Chakraborty, Apostolia M. Tsimberidou

The emergence of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) therapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, particularly for hematologic malignancies. This commentary discusses developments in CAR-T cell therapy, focusing on the molecular mechanisms governing T cell fate and differentiation. Transcriptional and epigenetic factors play a pivotal role in determining the specificity, effectiveness, and durability of CAR-T cell therapy.

Review Article Open Access

The Role of Tumor and Host Microbiome on Immunotherapy Response in Urologic Cancers

John Pfail, Jake Drobner, Krishna Doppalapudi, Biren Saraiya, Vignesh Packiam, Saum Ghodoussipour

The role of the microbiome in the development and treatment of genitourinary malignancies is just starting to be appreciated. Accumulating evidence suggests that the microbiome can modulate immunotherapy through signaling in the highly dynamic tumor microenvironment. Nevertheless, much is still unknown about the immuno-oncology-microbiome axis, especially in urologic oncology. The objective of this review is to synthesize our current understanding of the microbiome’s role in modulating and predicting immunotherapy response to genitourinary malignancies.

Research Article Open Access

Negative Feedback Expansion of Tregs Caused by Endogenous IL-2 Limits the Activity of IL-2-based Therapies

Inbar Amit, Natalie Levitin, Meital Gadrich, May Ben-Mayor, Timothy Wyant, Reut Barak, Liron Danielpur, Morya Ifrach, Itzhak Meir, Olga Bluvshtein, Yehezkel Sasson, Sharon Fischman, Guy Nimrod, Michael Zhenin, Yair Fastman, James Vasselli, Aron Knickerbocker, Ronald Herbst, Yanay Ofran

Stimulating effector T-cells (Teffs) without inducing regulatory T-cells (Tregs) has been the primary goal of IL-2-based therapies for cancer. Recently, modified IL-2 designed for differential T-cell expansion for the treatment of cancer has failed in the clinic. We propose that treatments based on exogenous administrations of modified IL-2 are inherently undermined by a negative feedback loop, caused by IL-2 secreted endogenously from activated effector T-cells.

Commentary Open Access

Clutch Control: Changing the Speed and Direction of CAR-T Cell Therapy

Alberto Nobili, Aya Kobayashi, Patrick C. Gedeon, Carl D. Novina

The adoptive transfer of T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) has revolutionized the treatment of hematological malignancies, providing unmatched clinical responses in adults and children with relapsed or refractory B cell malignancies.

Commentary Open Access

Can Butein be a Future Candidate for the Treatment of Advance Metastatic Thyroid Cancer?

Devavrat Tripathi, Savita Kulkarni

The incidence and prevalence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are increasing worldwide and it is the 5th most common endocrine cancer in females.

Review Article Open Access

Emerging Potential of Plant Virus Nanoparticles (PVNPs) in Anticancer Immunotherapies

Mehdi Shahgolzari, Steven Fiering

Plant virus nanoparticles (PVNPs) are increasingly recognized and studied for use in biomedical applications. PVNPs include plant virions with self-assembled capsid protein coats (PC) that encapsulate the virus genome, and virus-like particles (VLPs), a capsid without the viral genome.

Commentary Open Access

Humanized Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells

Pouya Safarzadeh Kozani, Pooria Safarzadeh Kozani, Roddy S. O’Connor

In 1989, researchers proposed an intricate strategy in the field of adoptive cell therapy (ACT). Using the T-cell receptor (TCR) as a template, they replaced the coding sequence for the Vα and Vβ chains with the antigen- recognition domains from an antibody (VH and VL chains).

Commentary Open Access

Cervical Cancer Prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa and HPV Vaccination Policy: A Public Health Grand Challenge?

Eric Asempah

“Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.”

Commentary Open Access

Expanding the Cancer Neoantigen Peptide Repertoire beyond In silico Tools

Amit Jain, Jackwee Lim

CD8+ cytotoxic T cells recognise and kill cancer cells that present immunogenic peptides bound to the cell surface major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules.

Commentary Open Access

Inhibition of Autophagy and Immune Response: Alpha-fetoprotein Stimulates Initiation of Liver Cancer

Mingyue Zhu, Mengsen Li

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a tumorous marker for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), it is synthesized mainly by the embryo yolk sac, fetal liver and the gastrointestinal tract. AFP belongs to the family of protein products of albuminoid genes, which are located in tandem arrangement in chromosome 4 (region 4q11-q13).

Editorial Open Access

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Cancer Care: Current Applications and Future Perspectives

Sachin Kumar Deshmukh

Cancer is the second most common cause of death worldwide, accounting for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in the year 2018, a number that is expected to grow to more than 13 million by 2030. In the past decade, we have witnessed unprecedented scientific advancement in the understanding of cancer etiology, prevention, diagnosis and development of new therapeutic strategies.

Review Article Open Access

Leucocyte-Tumor Cell Hybridization Can Initiate Cancer Metastasis

John M. Pawelek, Zachary Grasmick, Eric Duvall, Greggory S. LaBerge

According to estimates from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, by the year 2030 there will be 22 million new cancer cases and 13 million deaths per year. The main reason for death from cancer is not the initial tumor but it’s metastasis to distant parts of the body, yet this process has remained poorly understood for quite some time.

Review Article Open Access

Salivary Protein Antigens for Breast Cancer Biomarkers

Imad Abrao Nemeir, Joseph Saab, Walid Hleihel, Abdelhamid Errachid, Nadia Zine

Breast Cancer is the most regularly diagnosed type of cancer in women in the world, making up on its own 25% of all cases, or nearly 2 million new cases in 2018, and 15% of all cancer related deaths, or around 626,700 deaths for that same year.

Review Article Open Access

pMB FLASH - Status and Perspectives of Combining Proton Minibeam with FLASH Radiotherapy

Judith Reindl, Stefanie Girst

Proton minibeam radiotherapy (pMBRT) is an external beam radiotherapy method with reduced side effects by taking advantage of spatial fractionation in the normal tissue. Due to scattering, the delivered small beams widen in the tissue ensuring a homogeneous dose distribution in the tumor. In this review, the physical and biological principles regarding dose distribution and healing effects are explained. In the last decade, several preclinical studies have been conducted addressing normal tissue sparing and tumor control in-vitro and in-vivo, using human skin tissue and mouse or rat models. The major results acquired in these studies are summarized. A further newly emerging therapy method is FLASH radiotherapy, i.e. the treatment using ultra-high dose rates. The possibility of combining these methods in proton minibeam FLASH therapy (pMB FLASH) is worked out. Additionally, technical feasibility and limitations will be discussed by looking at simulations as well as preclinical studies and also pointing out new ways of delivering the desired tumor dose, such as interlacing. We will also highlight the opportunities that emerge regarding high dose radiation, hypofractionation and the combination with immunotherapy.

Research Article Open Access

Prevalence of Symptom Clusters in Cancer Patients at First Presentation in Palliative Care Clinic as per Different Disease Groups

Irum Ghafoor, Haroon Hafeez, Farhat Naz, Muhammad Abubakar, Arif Jamshed

Cancer has its own disease burden and patients usually suffer from symptom clusters when they are referred for palliative treatment. Identification of symptom cluster trajectories will help clinician to take into account measures that can optimize quality of life of palliative patients. Therefore the aim of this paper is to determine the overall prevalence of symptoms and symptoms clusters in different disease groups according to etiology at the time of first visit to Palliative care clinic by using HIS Palliative First Assessment note indicating Edmonton symptom scale.