Immunomodulatory effects of current cancer treatment and the consequences for follow-up immunotherapeutics

Recent advances in the use of immunotherapy have led to historic advancements in the field of oncology. Checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated significant effectiveness against a broadening range of cancers. However, despite the success of antibodies against the immune regulators, CTLA4 and PD-L1/PD-1, only a subset of patients will have a durable response to these therapies, which implies that a broader view of cancer immunity is required. It is becoming increasingly apparent that combination therapy to target multiple events in the cancer-immunity cycle is needed and could potentially extend the benefit of immunotherapy to a larger population. In this review, we discuss the current status of immunotherapy and highlight the use of combination therapy to prime the tumor microenvironment and thereby improve treatment effect.