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Aging, cancer, and antitumor immunity

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Abstract

Aging leads to numerous changes that affect many components of the immune system, called “immunosenescence”. Indeed, elderly individuals exhibit dysregulated immune responses against pathogens, poor responses to vaccination, and increased susceptibility to many diseases including cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic inflammatory diseases. Despite progressed understanding of immunosenescence, its detailed mechanisms are still not fully understood. With advances in medicine, the population of older cancer patients is expected to rapidly increase in the coming years. Cancer immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), have been shown to be effective for multiple cancer types, whereas to date, few specific data for elderly individuals have been published. Some systemic reviews have demonstrated that ICIs exhibit similar efficacy in older cancer patients, but they seem to be less effective in very old patients. In addition, toxicities might be more frequently observed in such patients. Here, we provide a summary to better understand immunosenescence and an overview of its relationship with cancer and antitumor immunity, including the efficacy and toxicity of ICIs.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [B Grant No. 20H03694 (to Y.T.), Challenging Exploratory Research Grant No. 19K22574 (to Y.T.)], by the Project for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Evolution [P-CREATE, No. 18cm0106340h0001 (YT)] and the Practical Research for Innovative Cancer Control [19ck0106521h0001 (YT)] from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chiba Cancer Center, Research Institute, 666-2, Nitona-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8717, Japan

    Hideki Ikeda & Yosuke Togashi

  2. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, 260-0856, Japan

    Hideki Ikeda

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  1. Hideki Ikeda
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  2. Yosuke Togashi
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All authors contributed to the discussion of the content, participated in the writing of the manuscript and reviewed/edited the article.

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Correspondence to Yosuke Togashi.

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Conflict of interest

Y. T. received research grants and honoraria from Ono Pharmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb, research grants from KOTAI Biotechnologies and Daiichi-Sankyo, and honoraria from Chugai Pharmaceutical outside this work.

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Ikeda, H., Togashi, Y. Aging, cancer, and antitumor immunity. Int J Clin Oncol 27, 316–322 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-021-01913-z

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