Prostate cancer immunotherapy: beyond immunity to curability

Area of Science:

• Cancer Immunology
• Translational Oncology
• Immunotherapy

Background:

• Metastatic prostate cancer is a significant cause of cancer-related death in the US.
• Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy offers modest survival improvements in advanced prostate cancer.
• Prostate cancer immunotherapy clinical trials attract substantial patient interest, exceeding other cancer types combined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advances in prostate cancer research over the past two decades.
• To highlight progress in bioengineering B-cell and T-cell responses for cancer treatment.
• To discuss ongoing clinical trials in prostate cancer immunotherapy.

Main Methods:

• Review of basic, translational, and clinical research in prostate cancer.
• Exploration of prostate lineage-unique proteins (PLUPs) as therapeutic targets.
• Analysis of immunologic strategies including anti-CTLA-4 treatment and neoantigen characterization.

Main Results:

• Exceptional responses observed with anti-CTLA-4 treatment.
• Prostate cancer neoantigen characterization and T-cell clonotyping are advancing.
• Prostate-specific autoimmunity targeting PLUPs presents a strategy for cancer cell ablation.

Conclusions:

• Bioengineered graft-versus-prostate strategies can eliminate prostate cancer deaths.
• Immunologic tolerance to prostate cancer can be overcome at all clinical stages.
• Targeting PLUPs offers a powerful approach for treating prostate cancer.