Targeting immune cell types of tumor microenvironment to overcome resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in lung cancer

Man Wang; Lijie Zhu; Xiaoxu Yang; Jiahui Li; Yu'e Liu; Ying Tang

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1132158

Targeting immune cell types of tumor microenvironment to overcome resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in lung cancer

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Feb 15:14:1132158. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1132158. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Man Wang¹, Lijie Zhu¹, Xiaoxu Yang¹, Jiahui Li¹, Yu'e Liu², Ying Tang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
² Tongji University Cancer Center, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Lung cancer is the common malignant tumor with the highest mortality rate. Lung cancer patients have achieved benefits from immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) therapy. Unfortunately, cancer patients acquire adaptive immune resistance, leading to poor prognosis. Tumor microenvironment (TME) has been demonstrated to play a critical role in participating in acquired adaptive immune resistance. TME is associated with molecular heterogeneity of immunotherapy efficacy in lung cancer. In this article, we discuss how immune cell types of TME are correlated with immunotherapy in lung cancer. Moreover, we describe the efficacy of immunotherapy in driven gene mutations in lung cancer, including KRAS, TP53, EGFR, ALK, ROS1, KEAP1, ZFHX3, PTCH1, PAK7, UBE3A, TNF-α, NOTCH, LRP1B, FBXW7, and STK11. We also emphasize that modulation of immune cell types of TME could be a promising strategy for improving adaptive immune resistance in lung cancer.

Keywords: PD-1; PD-L1; TME; immunotherapy; resistance; time.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 81900037).