Immunotherapy of mesothelioma: the evolving change of a long-standing therapeutic dream

Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 8:14:1333661. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1333661. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is an aggressive and rare disease, characterized by a very poor prognosis. For almost two decades, the world standard treatment regimen for unresectable PM has consisted of a platinum-based drug plus pemetrexed, leading to an overall survival of approximately 12 months. The dramatic therapeutic scenario of PM has recently changed with the entry into the clinic of immune checkpoint inhibition, which has proven to be an effective approach to improve the survival of PM patients. The aim of the present review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the most promising immunotherapeutic-based strategies currently under investigation for advanced PM.

Keywords: adoptive cell therapy; epigenetic drugs; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; pleural mesothelioma.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy
  • Mesothelioma* / drug therapy
  • Mesothelioma, Malignant*
  • Pemetrexed
  • Pleural Neoplasms*

Substances

  • Pemetrexed

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The work was supported by grants awarded to LCa in part from the Fondazione AIRC under 5 per Mille 2018-ID21073 program.