Immunotherapy has revolutionized oncology by harnessing the patient’s own immune system to recognize and eliminate tumor cells, leading to durable responses in a variety of malignancies. Over the past decade, immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4, PD-1, and PD-L1 have become standard of care across multiple solid tumors, while chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in hematologic cancers. Despite these successes, challenges such as primary and acquired resistance, immune-related toxicities, and high treatment costs continue to limit broader application. Emerging strategies including novel checkpoint targets (e.g., LAG-3, TIGIT), next-generation cellular therapies, cancer vaccines, and oncolytic viruses are under active investigation to expand therapeutic options and improve patient outcomes. Biomarker development for patient selection and combination regimens with chemotherapy, targeted agents, and radiation are critical to overcoming resistance mechanisms. Looking ahead, personalized immunotherapy approaches leveraging tumor neoantigens and the tumor microenvironment hold promise for more precise and effective treatments.
Chander et al. (Thu,) studied this question.