Immunotherapy of melanoma: efficacy and mode of action

Forty years of research have brought about the development of antibodies that induce effective antitumor immune responses through sustained activation of the immune system. These "immune checkpoint inhibitors" are directed against immune inhibitory molecules, such as cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed death 1 (PD-1) or programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Disruption of the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction improves the intermediate-term prognosis even in patients with advanced stage IV melanoma. One and a half years after treatment initiation, 30-60 % of these patients are still alive. While cancer immunotherapies usually do not eradicate metastases completely, they do cause a regression by 20-80 %. It is well established that the immune system is able to kill tumor cells, and this has also been demonstrated for immunotherapies. Preclinical data, however, has shown that anti-cancer immunity is not limited to killing cancer cells. Thus, through interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor, the immune system is able to induce stable tumor growth arrest, referred to as senescence. Ensuring patient survival by long-term stabilization of metastatic growth will therefore become a central goal of antitumor immunotherapies. This therapeutic approach is effective in melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer. Once immunotherapies also have an indication for common cancer types, drug prices will have to drop considerably in order to be able to keep them available to those dependent on such therapies.