Emerging Targets of Immunotherapy in Gynecologic Cancer

Hongyan Cheng

Liju Zong

Yujia Kong

Yu Gu

Junjun Yang

Yang Xiang

^{Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China}

^{Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China}

Correspondence: Yang Xiang Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China, Phone: Tel/Fax +86 1069154022, Email Xiangy@pumch.cn

Received 2020 Sep 18; Accepted 2020 Oct 31.

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Abstract

Although programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) and cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) have been successfully applied in the treatment of tumors, their efficiency is still not high enough. New immune targets need to be identified in order to seek alternative treatment strategies for patients with refractory tumors. Immune targets can be divided into stimulating and inhibiting molecules according to their function after receptor–ligand binding. We herein present a compendious summary of emerging immune targets in gynecologic tumors. These targets included coinhibitory molecules, such as T cell immunoglobulin-3 (TIM-3), T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), V-type immunoglobulin domain-containing suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA), and B7-H3 and B7-H4, and co-stimulatory molecules, such as CD27, OX40, 4–1BB, CD40, glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (GITR) and inducible co-stimulator (ICOS). In this review, the characteristics and preclinical/clinical progress of gynecological malignancies are briefly discussed. However, the potential mechanisms and interactions of immune targets need to be elucidated in further studies.

Keywords: immunotherapy, gynecologic neoplasms, T cell receptors, antigen presenting cells, molecular targeted therapy

Abstract

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81672586, 81971475, and 81972451) and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Initiative for Innovative Medicine (No. CAMS-2017-I2M-1-002).

Acknowledgments

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