cancer immunotherapy

Overview

Cancer immunotherapy encompasses a broad class of therapeutic strategies that harness or augment the body's own immune system to recognize, target, and eliminate malignant cells. Unlike conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, immunotherapy operates through immune-specific mechanisms—activating cytotoxic T cells (CD8+ T cells), natural killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells, and other immune effectors against tumors—offering superior immune specificity and reduced off-target effects. The foundational principles rest on overcoming tumor immune evasion: cancer cells exploit checkpoints such as the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, suppress antigen presentation, and remodel the tumor microenvironment (TME) to exclude or exhaust infiltrating lymphocytes. Key pillars of modern cancer immunotherapy include checkpoint inhibitor (targeting PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4), chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy, cancer vaccines, bispecific and trispecific antibody engagers, and innate immune pathway agonists such as activators of the cGAS-STING pathway.

The clinical impact of cancer immunotherapy has been transformative across multiple tumor types. Agents such as nivolumab, ipilimumab, atezolizumab, and durvalumab have demonstrated durable responses in patients with advanced melanoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and other malignancies. However, substantial inter-patient response heterogeneity limits benefit to specific subsets, driving intense investigation into predictive biomarkers, combination strategies, and novel delivery systems. Ongoing research seeks to extend immunotherapy's reach to immunologically "cold" tumors—those with sparse lymphocytic infiltration—by reprogramming the TME, enhancing antigen presentation, and synergizing immune activation with targeted agents and nanomedicine platforms.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications have focused on identifying predictive biomarkers and patient stratification strategies to optimize cancer immunotherapy outcomes across multiple malignancies. In advanced and recurrent cervical cancer, peripheral blood biomarkers—including baseline CD4+ T-cell percentages and post-treatment levels of CA125, SCCA, CD8+ T-cell subsets, and PD-1 expression—were significantly associated with treatment response and prognosis following immunotherapy combined with chemoradiotherapy. Similarly, in liver cancer, computed tomography imaging features have been employed to identify distinct tumor subtypes with different prognostic profiles and immunotherapy responsiveness, suggesting that radiologic biomarkers may help predict treatment efficacy. These biomarker-driven approaches represent a minimally invasive strategy for personalizing immunotherapy selection.

Combination immunotherapy strategies are emerging as a key focus in recent research. In high-risk bladder cancer, the addition of immune checkpoint inhibitors—including durvalumab and atezolizumab—to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has been investigated, with trials (CREST and POTOMAC) demonstrating improvements in event-free or disease-free survival, though differential toxicity and patient attrition patterns may complicate interpretation of efficacy outcomes. Multi-omics analyses in colorectal cancer have identified distinct immune subtypes, with findings suggesting that immune-cold tumors characterized by high WNT pathway activation may benefit from combination immunotherapy with Targeted Cancer Therapy approaches. In pancreatic adenocarcinoma and biliary tract cancers, researchers are optimizing immunotherapy efficacy through combinations with other targeted approaches, including MEK inhibitors, though clinical translation remains challenging.

Emerging evidence highlights the role of the tumor microenvironment and systemic immune signatures in determining immunotherapy response. Multi-omics integration approaches, combining transcriptomics, genomics, methylation, and immune infiltration profiles, have generated novel tumor classifications—such as the Multi-Omics Tumor Immune Features-based Clusters (MotifCC) system for colorectal cancer—that stratify patients by immune phenotype and predicted responsiveness to treatment. In non-small cell lung cancer, artificial intelligence and radiomics have been applied to integrate multi-omics data, including pathomics and microbiomics, to predict immunotherapy efficacy and potential toxicities, advancing precision medicine approaches despite current challenges in data standardization and interpretability.

Surgical and mechanistic factors are increasingly recognized as determinants of immunotherapy efficacy. In biliary tract cancer and other solid tumors, excessive dissection of tumor-draining lymph nodes during surgical resection may impair subsequent immunotherapy outcomes by reducing adaptive immune response capacity, suggesting that lymph node preservation may be strategically important for maintaining antitumor immunity. Furthermore, emerging research in lung cancer has identified autophagy-ferroptosis crosstalk as a mechanism influencing immunotherapy response, with combination approaches targeting these pathways showing potential for synergistic efficacy, though most strategies remain in preclinical development and require further molecular elucidation.

Key Publications

• NEWJun Using peripheral blood indicators and T cells subsets to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapy for advanced and recurrent cervical cancer. (Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 2026, PMID 42334275): "receiving first-line immunotherapy combined with chemo/radiotherapy from Qingdao Central Hospital network."
• NEWJun Opsonization and timing as key determinants of MBTA immunotherapy efficacy in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and recurrence treatment. (Cancer biology & therapy, 2026, PMID 42318705): "This study aimed to optimize the efficacy of a previously developed tumor immunotherapy for the treatment of this disease and its recurrences."
• May Clustering of quantitative CT features identifies HCC subtypes with distinct prognosis and immune signatures. (European radiology experimental, 2026, PMID 42201507): "There is still a lack of widely applicable biomarkers for immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)."
• May Global research trends and hotspot evolution analysis of immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis: a multi-dimensional exploration based on bibliometrics. (Brazilian journal of otorhinolaryngology, 2026, PMID 42143850): "This study employs bibliometric methods to analyze global research trends and the evolution of hotspots in the field of Allergic Rhinitis (AR) immunotherapy between 2010 and 2024."
• May Hepatocellular carcinoma in the immunotherapy Era: A SEER-based era comparison across the U.S. FDA transition. (European journal of surgical oncology : the journal of the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the British Association of Surgical Oncology, 2026, PMID 42119196): "In 2020, immunotherapy entered first-line care for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)."
• May Telemedicine adoption, pandemic-related fear, and treatment adherence in cancer care during COVID-19: a prospective cohort study. (Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2026, PMID 42081154): "To evaluate the impact of telemedicine adoption and pandemic-related fear on treatment adherence, healthcare utilization, and supportive care processes among patients undergoing cancer therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic."
• Apr Introduction to Pharmacogenomics: Role of the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory in Personalised Medicine-Current Status and Future Prospects. (International journal of immunogenetics, 2026, PMID 42026887): "Finally, the expanding role of HLA genotyping in cancer immunotherapies is discussed, along with future developments in the broader pharmacogenomics field and how H&I laboratories can contribute to this."
• Jun Censoring patterns and inconsistent results in checkpoint inhibitor and adjuvant BCG trials for high-risk bladder cancer. (European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990), 2026, PMID 42019224): "The addition of immunotherapy to BCG significantly increases toxicity, and supports that some level of toxicity-related informative censoring might have differentially affected the three trials."
• Jun Influence of Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes on Immunotherapy: Lymphadenectomy May Have Its Limits. (Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2026, PMID 41926699): "In this issue of CCR Translations, it is explored whether removing fewer than usual tumor-draining lymph nodes (LN) at surgical resection might offer better outcomes in patients subsequently receiving immunotherapy."
• Apr Artificial Intelligence for Predicting Immunotherapy Efficacy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. (Journal of inflammation research, 2026, PMID 41867453): "Identifying potential beneficiaries of immunotherapy and predicting efficacy remain critical challenges."