Immunotherapy for Cervical Cancer
摘要
Cervical cancer is a highly prevalent gynecological malignancy worldwide, and it is associated with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The continuance of HPV and cellular transformation are related to the immune response. The innate and adaptive immune response cells must be activated appropriately to eliminate infected and transformed cells to avoid the development of cancer. However, this activation of the immune response leads to tumor immunoselection, which generates clones that evade the immune response. Various molecules have been characterized as immune control points, and the most studied are the programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) axis and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4). The tumor microenvironment modulates the expression of PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 to evade the immune response. Therefore, one recently analyzed therapeutic strategy is blockade of these regulatory molecules of the immune control points to induce efficient immune responses in cancer patients. This chapter describes the activity of immune system cells, immune checkpoints, and their inhibition as a tool to activate the immune system and achieve tumor elimination.