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Updated: Nov 6, 2025
Flow Cytometry-Based Isolation and Therapeutic Evaluation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in a Mouse Model of Pancreatic Cancer
Published on: January 17, 2025
Immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer
Jai Hoon Yoon1, Ye-Ji Jung2, Sung-Hoon Moon3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 04763, South Korea.
Abstract:
Pancreatic cancer, a highly lethal cancer, has the lowest 5-year survival rate for several reasons, including its tendency for the late diagnosis, a lack of serologic markers for screening, aggressive local invasion, its early metastatic dissemination, and its resistance to chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Pancreatic cancer evades immunologic elimination by a variety of mechanisms, including induction of an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts interact with inhibitory immune cells, such as tumor-associated macrophages and regulatory T cells, to form an inflammatory shell-like desmoplastic stroma around tumor cells. Immunotherapy has the potential to mobilize the immune system to eliminate cancer cells. Nevertheless, although immunotherapy has shown brilliant results across a wide range of malignancies, only anti-programmed cell death 1 antibodies have been approved for use in patients with pancreatic cancer who test positive for microsatellite instability or mismatch repair deficiency. Some patients treated with immunotherapy who show progression based on conventional response criteria may prove to have a durable response later. Continuation of immune-based treatment beyond disease progression can be chosen if the patient is clinically stable. Immunotherapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer treatment deserve further exploration, given the plethora of combination trials with other immunotherapeutic agents, targeted therapy, stroma-modulating agents, chemotherapy, and multi-way combination therapies.
Insights
Pancreatic cancer is deadly due to late diagnosis and treatment resistance. Immunotherapy shows promise, but its application in pancreatic cancer requires further research and combination strategies.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
Background:
- Pancreatic cancer has a low survival rate due to late diagnosis, metastasis, and resistance to conventional therapies.
- The tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer often suppresses immune responses, hindering natural elimination.
- Current immunotherapies are limited, with only anti-PD-1 antibodies approved for specific pancreatic cancer subtypes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the challenges and potential of immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer treatment.
- To explore mechanisms of immune evasion in pancreatic cancer.
- To discuss future directions for immunotherapeutic strategies, including combination therapies.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of pancreatic cancer immunology and immunotherapy.
- Analysis of mechanisms of immune suppression within the pancreatic tumor microenvironment.
- Evaluation of current and emerging immunotherapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer.
Main Results:
- Pancreatic cancer employs multiple mechanisms to create an immunosuppressive microenvironment.
- Limited success of current immunotherapies, with specific approvals for microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair-deficient tumors.
- Potential for durable responses in some patients, even with initial progression, suggesting continued immunotherapy may be beneficial.
Conclusions:
- Immunotherapy holds potential for pancreatic cancer, but significant challenges remain.
- Combination therapies involving immunotherapy, targeted agents, and stroma-modulating drugs are crucial for future progress.
- Further exploration of immunotherapeutic strategies is warranted to improve patient outcomes.
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