Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Immunology, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini, 6, 50134 Firenze, Italy.
Recent Pat Anticancer Drug Discov. 2013 May;8(2):126-42.
The response of the body to cancer is not a unique mechanism and has many parallels with inflammation and wound healing. Unresolved inflammation generates a microenvironment favorable for cellular transformation and the growth of cancer cells. Chronic tissue damage triggers a repair response that includes the production of growth factors, cytokines and chemokines. Cytokines and chemokines have a crucial role in cancer-related inflammation with consequent, direct and indirect effects on the proliferative and invasive properties of tumor cells. In view of the multifactorial functions of cytokines and chemokines in tumorigenesis, the elucidation of their roles will further advance our understanding of the patho-physiological processes of tumor development and highlights potential innovative anti-cancer strategies. Despite recent advances, main anti-cancer therapies, namely surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, are limited in their ability to treat minimal and metastatic residual disease. Furthermore, the benefit of conventional therapies is often limited by collateral damage to normal tissues. Immunotherapy is a new avenue of cancer treatment being investigated by researchers and clinicians for different cancer types. The aim of this paper is to analyze the recent patents and scientific reviews on the major cytokine/chemokine pathways involved in cancer immunotherapy and discuss their basic biology, clinical relevance and potential directions for future anti-cancer therapeutic applications.
机体对癌症的反应并非独特的机制，与炎症和伤口愈合有许多相似之处。未解决的炎症会产生有利于细胞转化和癌细胞生长的微环境。慢性组织损伤会引发修复反应，包括生长因子、细胞因子和趋化因子的产生。细胞因子和趋化因子在与癌症相关的炎症中起着至关重要的作用，对肿瘤细胞的增殖和侵袭特性有直接和间接的影响。鉴于细胞因子和趋化因子在肿瘤发生中的多因素功能，阐明它们的作用将进一步加深我们对肿瘤发展病理生理过程的理解，并突出潜在的创新抗癌策略。尽管最近取得了进展，但主要的抗癌疗法，即手术、放射疗法和化学疗法，在治疗最小和转移性残留疾病方面的能力有限。此外，常规疗法的益处往往受到对正常组织的附带损伤的限制。免疫疗法是癌症治疗的一个新途径，研究人员和临床医生正在为不同类型的癌症进行研究。本文旨在分析癌症免疫疗法中涉及的主要细胞因子/趋化因子途径的最新专利和科学综述，并讨论它们的基础生物学、临床相关性以及未来抗癌治疗应用的潜在方向。
