Basics of immunotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer

Virginie Bund (1) , Henri Azais , Sabrina Bibi-Triki (2) , Lise Lecointre (3) , Sarah B. Betrian (4) , Martina A. Angeles , Lauriane Eberst (5) , Emilie Faller (1) , Thomas Boisrame (1) , Sofiane Bendifallah , Cherif Akladios (2) , Elise Deluche

1 HUS - Les Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg
2 IRM - Immuno-Rhumatologie Moléculaire
3 ICube - Laboratoire des sciences de l'ingénieur, de l'informatique et de l'imagerie
4 Institut Claudius Regaud
5 ICANS - Institut de Cancérologie de Strasbourg Europe

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal of all gynecological cancers. Despite excellent responses to standard treatment in approximately 70% of patients, most of them will relapse within 5 years of initial treatment and many of them will develop chemotherapy-resistant disease. It is then important to find other means of treatment for these patients such as immunotherapy or targeted therapy. To understand immunotherapy, it is important to explain the dynamic interplay between cancer and the immune system. Compared to traditional tumor therapies, immunotherapy acts primarily on the immune system or the tumor microenvironment but not directly on the tumor cells, and it may also promote synergistic anti-tumor actions as part of a combined treatment. The aim of this narrative review is to provide a basic understanding of immunotherapy the interest of this treatment in EOC, and to present the main ongoing studies that could change patient management in the future.

Domains: Cancer

Virginie Bund, Henri Azais, Sabrina Bibi-Triki, Lise Lecointre, Sarah B. Betrian, et al.. Basics of immunotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer. Journal of Gynecology Obstetrics and Human Reproduction, 2021, 51 (2), pp.102283. ⟨10.1016/j.jogoh.2021.102283⟩. ⟨hal-04544620⟩