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Translational Considerations on the Outlook of Immunotherapy for Colorectal Cancer

  • Translational Colorectal Oncology (Y Jiang, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Colorectal Cancer Reports

Abstract

Immunotherapy is an emerging strategy for many types of cancers and is already a standard treatment for malignant melanoma. Several aspects of colorectal cancer would appear to make it a good target for immunotherapy. Colorectal cancer is associated with a high mutation burden that may generate tumor-specific neo-epitopes that could elicit adaptive immune responses. Tumors with infiltrating immune cells appear to have better clinical outcome and response to chemotherapy. Patients with impaired DNA repair mechanisms have circulating antibodies and T cells that recognize resulting frameshift peptides, and anecdotal clinical responses have occurred in patients treated with immune augmentation, such as anti-PD-1, anti-PDL-1, anti-CTLA-4, and complement receptor 3-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Yet, despite this potential, colorectal cancer is lagging behind in the development of therapeutic immunotherapy. Therefore, the rational design and interpretation of future immunotherapy studies in this disease will be pivotal to colorectal cancer joining the ranks of the “more” immunoresponsive tumors.

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Conflict of Interest

Neil H. Segal has received research support through grants from MedImmune, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer; has served as a consultant for MedImmune, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer; and has received honoraria for education presentations from MedImmune.

Leonard B. Saltz declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 300 E66th Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Neil H. Segal & Leonard B. Saltz

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  1. Neil H. Segal
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  2. Leonard B. Saltz
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Correspondence to Neil H. Segal.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Translational Colorectal Oncology

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Segal, N.H., Saltz, L.B. Translational Considerations on the Outlook of Immunotherapy for Colorectal Cancer. Curr Colorectal Cancer Rep 11, 92–97 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11888-015-0258-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11888-015-0258-5

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