Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University, Mike de Vries Building, C/o Merriman and Bosman Street, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa.
Cancercare, Cape Town, South Africa.
Immunol Res. 2024 Aug;72(4):592-604. doi: 10.1007/s12026-024-09493-6. Epub 2024 May 31.
Cervical cancer affects thousands of women globally with recurring high-risk HPV infections being at the centre of cervical pathology. Oncological treatment strategies are continually challenged by both chemoresistance and metastasis within patients. Although both work hand-in-hand, targeting their individual mechanisms could prove highly beneficial for treatment outcomes. Such targets include the metastatic-promoting stem cell marker, CD44, which is abundant in cervical cancer cells and is common to both chemoresistance and metastatic mechanisms. Seeing that many existing advanced-stage cervical cancer treatment regimes, such as platinum-based chemotherapy regimens, remain limited and are rarely curative, alternative treatment options within the field of immunology are being considered. The use of immune checkpoint inhibition therapy, which targets immune checkpoints, CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1, has shown promise as an alternate standard of care for patients suffering from advanced-stage cervical cancer. Therefore, this review aims to assess whether immune checkpoint inhibition can mitigate the pathological effects of CD44-induced EMT, metastasis, and chemoresistance in cervical cancer patients.
宫颈癌影响着全球成千上万的女性，而高危 HPV 感染是宫颈癌发生的核心。肿瘤的治疗策略不断受到患者体内化疗耐药和转移的挑战。虽然两者密切相关，但针对其各自的机制可能对治疗结果非常有益。这些靶点包括促进转移的干细胞标志物 CD44，它在宫颈癌细胞中大量存在，与化疗耐药和转移机制都有关。鉴于许多现有的晚期宫颈癌治疗方案，如铂类化疗方案，仍然有限且很少能治愈，因此正在考虑免疫学领域的替代治疗方案。免疫检查点抑制疗法的应用，该疗法针对免疫检查点、CTLA-4 和 PD-1/PD-L1，已显示出作为晚期宫颈癌患者替代标准治疗的潜力。因此，本综述旨在评估免疫检查点抑制是否可以减轻 CD44 诱导的 EMT、转移和化疗耐药对宫颈癌患者的病理影响。
