Cell therapies in ovarian cancer. (April 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sarivalasis, Apostolos; Morotti, Matteo; Mulvey, Arthur; Imbimbo, Martina; Coukos, George
• Is Part Of: Therapeutic advances in medical oncology. Volume 13(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-04
• Subjects: adoptive cell therapy (ACT) -- cancer immunotherapy -- neoantigens -- ovarian cancer -- tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL); Oncology -- Periodicals; Cancer -- Treatment -- Periodicals; 616.994005
• DOI: 10.1177/17588359211008399
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-8340

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most important cause of gynecological cancer-related mortality. Despite improvements in medical therapies, particularly with the incorporation of drugs targeting homologous recombination deficiency, EOC survival rates remain low. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) is a personalized form of immunotherapy in which autologous lymphocytes are expanded, manipulated ex vivo, and re-infused into patients to mediate cancer rejection. This highly promising novel approach with curative potential encompasses multiple strategies, including the adoptive transfer of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, natural killer cells, or engineered immune components such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) constructs and engineered T-cell receptors. Technical advances in genomics and immuno-engineering have made possible neoantigen-based ACT strategies, as well as CAR-T cells with increased cell persistence and intratumoral trafficking, which have the potential to broaden the opportunity for patients with EOC. Furthermore, dendritic cell-based immunotherapies have been tested in patients with EOC with modest but encouraging results, while the combination of DC-based vaccination as a priming modality for other cancer therapies has shown encouraging results. In this manuscript, we provide a clinically oriented historical overview of various forms of cell therapies for the treatment of EOC, with an emphasis on T-cell therapy.