Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 30, 2026
Identifying PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors with Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology
Published on: May 2, 2025
Immune checkpoint inhibitors: making immunotherapy a reality for the treatment of lung cancer
Julie R Brahmer1, Drew M Pardoll
1Authors' Affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland.
Abstract:
Despite the limited success of immunotherapies in solid malignancy, two human cancers, melanoma and renal cancer, have, for many years, responded to systemic administration of immune-targeted biologics and showed signals of response to certain therapeutic vaccines. These findings underpinned a long-held perception that melanoma and renal cancer were uniquely "immunogenic" but that virtually all other human cancers were not and thus would not respond to immune modulation. That notion has now been shattered by the significant and durable responses in non-small cell lung cancer induced by therapeutic treatment with antibodies blocking the PD-1 checkpoint. The immunotherapy success in lung cancer thus provides a gateway to development of treatments for multiple cancer types that were previously believed not accessible to immune-based therapies.
Insights
Immunotherapies are now effective in non-small cell lung cancer, challenging the belief that only melanoma and renal cancers respond. This breakthrough opens doors for treating previously inaccessible cancer types with immune modulation.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Cancer Research
Background:
- Historically, only melanoma and renal cancer showed significant response to immunotherapy.
- This led to the perception that most solid tumors were not immunogenic.
- Immunotherapies, including biologics and vaccines, had limited success in broader cancer treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the long-held notion of cancer immunogenicity.
- To explore the potential of immune modulation in previously unresponsive cancer types.
- To highlight the impact of recent immunotherapy advancements.
Main Methods:
- Review of clinical responses to immunotherapies.
- Analysis of treatment outcomes in melanoma and renal cancer.
- Evaluation of novel immunotherapy approaches in non-small cell lung cancer.
Main Results:
- Significant and durable responses observed in non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors.
- This success contradicts the traditional view of cancer immunogenicity.
- Immunotherapy is now a viable treatment strategy for a wider range of cancers.
Conclusions:
- The success of PD-1 blockade in lung cancer shatters previous beliefs about cancer immunogenicity.
- This opens new avenues for developing immune-based therapies for diverse cancer types.
- Immunotherapy holds promise for cancers once considered untreatable.
More Related Videos
06:03Orthotopic Transplantation of Syngeneic Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells to Study PD-L1 Expression
Published on: January 19, 2019
06:38An Oncogenic Hepatocyte-Induced Orthotopic Mouse Model of Hepatocellular Cancer Arising in the Setting of Hepatic Inflammation and Fibrosis
Published on: September 12, 2019
Related Concept Videos
01:27Tumor Immunotherapy
02:57Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
01:30Cancer Vaccines
Cancer vaccines come in two categories: preventive (prophylactic) and treatment (active). Preventive vaccines, such as the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, protect against viruses that cause certain...