Potential Targets for Pancreatic Cancer Immunotherapeutics

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is the fourth leading cause of cancer death with an overall 5-year survival of less than 5%. As there is ample evidence that pancreatic adenocarcinomas elicit antitumor immune responses, identification of pancreatic cancer-associated antigens has spurred the development of vaccination-based strategies for treatment. While promising results have been observed in animal tumor models, most clinical studies have found only limited success. As most trials were performed in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the contribution of immune suppressor mechanisms should be taken into account. In this article, we detail recent work in tumor antigen vaccination and the recently identified mechanisms of immune suppression in pancreatic cancer. We offer our perspective on how to increase the clinical efficacy of vaccines for pancreatic cancer.

KEYWORDS::

• chimeric antigen receptor
• immune suppression
• immune therapy
• MDSC
• pancreatic cancer
• T cell
• Treg
• vaccine

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Lindzy F Dodson is funded through a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society, and this work was partially funded by NIH 1R21CA150945-01 to William G Hawkins. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Lindzy F Dodson is funded through a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society, and this work was partially funded by NIH 1R21CA150945-01 to William G Hawkins. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.