"Cold" Colorectal Cancer Faces a Bottleneck in Immunotherapy

Overview

Journal World J Gastrointest Oncol

Publisher Baishideng Publishing Group

Date 2023 Mar 13

PMID 36908324

Authors

Jia-Liang Liu

Ming Yang

Jun-Ge Bai

Zheng Liu

Xi-Shan Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The advent of immunotherapy and the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are changing the way we think about cancer treatment. ICIs have shown clinical benefits in a variety of tumor types, and ICI-based immunotherapy has shown effective clinical outcomes in immunologically "hot" tumors. However, for immunologically "cold" tumors such as colorectal cancer (CRC), only a limited number of patients are currently benefiting from ICIs due to limitations such as individual differences and low response rates. In this review, we discuss the classification and differences between hot and cold CRC and the current status of research on cold CRC, and summarize the treatment strategies and challenges of immunotherapy for cold CRC. We also explain the mechanism, biology, and role of immunotherapy for cold CRC, which will help clarify the future development of immunotherapy for cold CRC and discovery of more emerging strategies for the treatment of cold CRC.

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