Application of Cytokines in the Treatment of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with a high incidence rate and mortality worldwide. Cytokines are a crucial component of the human immune system. In cancer treatment, cytokine-based cancer immunotherapy has shown promising clinical prospects. It is worth noting that over the past few decades, there has been extensive research on cytokines and their receptors as targets for cancer or cancer treatment methods. As proteins in the immune system, interleukin, interferons, and other cytokines play crucial roles in controlling the body's immunological response to cancer cells and triggering the death of cancer cells. For example, IL-12 has demonstrated powerful tumor suppression capabilities. In addition, because most cytokine therapy trials have started in late-stage cancer patients, this may to some extent limit the therapeutic effect of cytokine therapy. Therefore, using cytokine therapy to enhance the activity of traditional cancer therapies or mitigate the immunotoxic effects of therapy on the human body could be a direction for the development of cytokine therapy. Thus, the functions and principles of the different cytokines in the cancer-immune cycle are discussed here, with a focus on the clinical use of cancer therapy based on different cytokines in the management of lung cancer.