Immunotherapy in Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

Katarina Kalavska; Silvia Schmidtova; Michal Chovanec; Michal Mego

doi:10.3389/fonc.2020.573977

Immunotherapy in Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

Front Oncol. 2020 Sep 24:10:573977. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.573977. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Katarina Kalavska^{1

2}, Silvia Schmidtova^{1

2}, Michal Chovanec³, Michal Mego^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Translational Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University and National Cancer Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia.
² Department of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Research Institute, Biomedical Research Center, University Science Park for Biomedicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
³ Second Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University and National Cancer Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Abstract

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are malignancies with very high curative potential even in metastatic settings, mainly due to the introduction of cisplatin in the treatment of this disease. However, in a group of patients with cisplatin-refractory disease or with progressive disease despite high-dose salvage chemotherapy treatment, the prognosis is typically dismal. The triple combination of gemcitabine, oxaliplatin, and paclitaxel (GOP) has reasonable efficacy and is considered to be standard care for this group of patients. It remains to be seen, however, whether refractory TGCTs may represent a potential target for immune checkpoint inhibition. This review will focus on the rationale of the use of immunotherapy for platinum-refractory TGCTs and summarize data reporting experiences with immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment for this malignancy.

Keywords: cisplatin-resistance; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immune microenvironment; immunotherapy; testicular germ cell tumors.

Publication types

Review