Chouari Tarak, La Costa Francesca Soraya, Merali Nabeel, Jessel Maria-Danae, Sivakumar Shivan, Annels Nicola, Frampton Adam E
Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Department, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, Guildford GU2 7XX, UK.
Section of Oncology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7WG, UK.
Cancers (Basel). 2023 Aug 25;15(17):4265. doi: 10.3390/cancers15174265.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) accounts for up to 95% of all pancreatic cancer cases and is the seventh-leading cause of cancer death. Poor prognosis is a result of late presentation, a lack of screening tests and the fact some patients develop resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Novel therapies like immunotherapeutics have been of recent interest in pancreatic cancer. However, this field remains in its infancy with much to unravel. Immunotherapy and other targeted therapies have yet to yield significant progress in treating PDAC, primarily due to our limited understanding of the disease immune mechanisms and its intricate interactions with the tumour microenvironment (TME). In this review we provide an overview of current novel immunotherapies which have been studied in the field of pancreatic cancer. We discuss their mechanisms, evidence available in pancreatic cancer as well as the limitations of such therapies. We showcase the potential role of combining novel therapies in PDAC, postulate their potential clinical implications and the hurdles associated with their use in PDAC. Therapies discussed with include programmed death checkpoint inhibitors, Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4, Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T cell therapy, oncolytic viral therapy and vaccine therapies including KRAS vaccines, Telomerase vaccines, Gastrin Vaccines, Survivin-targeting vaccines, Heat-shock protein (HSP) peptide complex-based vaccines, MUC-1 targeting vaccines, Listeria based vaccines and Dendritic cell-based vaccines.
Cancers (Basel). 2023-8-25
Int Immunopharmacol. 2021-6
Cancers (Basel). 2021-11-3
Mol Cancer. 2020-2-15
Chronic Dis Transl Med. 2020-2-11
Chin Clin Oncol. 2017-6
World J Gastroenterol. 2016-1-14
Surg Oncol. 2022-8
Biology (Basel). 2025-8-7
Vaccines (Basel). 2025-3-14
Front Immunol. 2025-2-12
Cancers (Basel). 2024-5-31
J Hematol Oncol. 2024-6-4
World J Gastrointest Oncol. 2024-5-15
Int J Mol Sci. 2024-2-5
Nature. 2023-6
J Pers Med. 2022-11-8
Cancers (Basel). 2022-5-13
Biomedicines. 2022-3-11