Rational combination immunotherapeutic approaches for effective cancer treatment

Abstract

Immunotherapy is an important mode of cancer treatment. Over the past decades, immunotherapy has improved the clinical outcome for cancer patients. However, in many cases, mutations in cancer cells, lack of selectivity, insufficiency of tumor-reactive T cells, and host immunosuppression limit the clinical benefit of immunotherapy. Combination approaches in immunotherapy may overcome these obstacles. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that combination immunotherapy is the future of cancer treatment. However, designing safe and rational combinations of immunotherapy with other treatment modalities is critical. This review will discuss the optimal immunotherapy-based combinations mainly with respect to the mechanisms of action of individual therapeutic agents that target multiple steps in evasion and progression of tumor.