Success of Checkpoint Blockade Paves the Way for Novel Immune Therapy in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2023 Jun 10

PMID 37296902

Authors

Lizbeth Rondon

Roberto Fu

Manish R Patel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a malignancy associated with asbestos exposure and is typically categorized as an orphan disease. Recent developments in immunotherapy with anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies, specifically with agents nivolumab and ipilimumab, have demonstrated an improvement in overall survival over the previous standard chemotherapy leading to their FDA-approval as first-line therapy for unresectable disease. For quite some time, it has been known that these proteins are not the only ones that function as immune checkpoints in human biology, and the hypothesis that MPM is an immunogenic disease has led to an expanding number of studies investigating alternative checkpoint inhibitors and novel immunotherapy for this malignancy. Early trials are also supporting the notion that therapies that target biological molecules on T cells, cancer cells, or that trigger the antitumor activity of other immune cells may represent the future of MPM treatment. Moreover, mesothelin-targeted therapies are thriving in the field, with forthcoming results from multiple trials signaling an improvement in overall survival when combined with other immunotherapy agents. The following manuscript will review the current state of immune therapy for MPM, explore the knowledge gaps in the field, and discuss ongoing novel immunotherapeutic research in early clinical trials.

Citing Articles

Soy isoflavone genistein attenuates the efficacy of immune checkpoint therapy in C57BL/6 mice inoculated with B16F1 melanoma and a high PD-L1 expression level reflects tumor resistance.

Yamamoto M, Tanaka Y, Takeda R, Nakamoto A, Nakamoto M, Yagita H J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2024; 74(1):57-62.

PMID: 38292119 PMC: 10822757. DOI: 10.3164/jcbn.23-76.

Serum Calretinin and Genetic Variability as a Prognostic and Predictive Factor in Malignant Mesothelioma.

Zupanc C, Franko A, Strbac D, Kovac V, Dolzan V, Goricar K Int J Mol Sci. 2024; 25(1).

PMID: 38203360 PMC: 10778798. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25010190.

Epithelioid Mesothelioma Patients with Very Long Survival Display Defects in DNA Repair.

Ganzinelli M, Guffanti F, Ianza A, Sobhani N, Crovella S, Zanconati F Cancers (Basel). 2023; 15(17).

PMID: 37686585 PMC: 10486625. DOI: 10.3390/cancers15174309.

References

Zalcman G, Mazieres J, Margery J, Greillier L, Audigier-Valette C, Moro-Sibilot D . Bevacizumab for newly diagnosed pleural mesothelioma in the Mesothelioma Avastin Cisplatin Pemetrexed Study (MAPS): a randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2016; 387(10026):1405-1414. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01238-6. View

Nishimura Y, Kumagai-Takei N, Matsuzaki H, Lee S, Maeda M, Kishimoto T . Functional Alteration of Natural Killer Cells and Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes upon Asbestos Exposure and in Malignant Mesothelioma Patients. Biomed Res Int. 2015; 2015:238431. PMC: 4486484. DOI: 10.1155/2015/238431. View

Watanabe K, Luo Y, Da T, Guedan S, Ruella M, Scholler J . Pancreatic cancer therapy with combined mesothelin-redirected chimeric antigen receptor T cells and cytokine-armed oncolytic adenoviruses. JCI Insight. 2018; 3(7). PMC: 5928866. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.99573. View

Makker V, Colombo N, Casado Herraez A, Santin A, Colomba E, Miller D . Lenvatinib plus Pembrolizumab for Advanced Endometrial Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2022; 386(5):437-448. PMC: 11651366. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2108330. View

Kumagai-Takei N, Nishimura Y, Matsuzaki H, Lee S, Yoshitome K, Ito T . Effect of IL-15 addition on asbestos-induced suppression of human cytotoxic T lymphocyte induction. Environ Health Prev Med. 2021; 26(1):50. PMC: 8056682. DOI: 10.1186/s12199-021-00967-9. View

Scherpereel A, Mazieres J, Greillier L, Lantuejoul S, Do P, Bylicki O . Nivolumab or nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with relapsed malignant pleural mesothelioma (IFCT-1501 MAPS2): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, non-comparative, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2019; 20(2):239-253. DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30765-4. View

Forde P, Anagnostou V, Sun Z, Dahlberg S, Kindler H, Niknafs N . Durvalumab with platinum-pemetrexed for unresectable pleural mesothelioma: survival, genomic and immunologic analyses from the phase 2 PrE0505 trial. Nat Med. 2021; 27(11):1910-1920. PMC: 8604731. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-021-01541-0. View

Okada M, Kijima T, Aoe K, Kato T, Fujimoto N, Nakagawa K . Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Nivolumab: Results of a ulticenter, Opn-label, Single-am, Japanese Phase II study in Malgnant Pleural Mesohelioma (MERIT). Clin Cancer Res. 2019; 25(18):5485-5492. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-0103. View

Hotta K, Fujimoto N . Current evidence and future perspectives of immune-checkpoint inhibitors in unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. J Immunother Cancer. 2020; 8(1). PMC: 7057421. DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2019-000461. View

10.

Aldea M, Benitez J, Chaput N, Besse B . New Immunotherapy Combinations Enter the Battlefield of Malignant Mesothelioma. Cancer Discov. 2021; 11(11):2674-2676. DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1046. View

11.

Pecora A, Rizvi N, Cohen G, Meropol N, Sterman D, Marshall J . Phase I trial of intravenous administration of PV701, an oncolytic virus, in patients with advanced solid cancers. J Clin Oncol. 2002; 20(9):2251-66. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2002.08.042. View

12.

Hassan R, Alley E, Kindler H, Antonia S, Jahan T, Honarmand S . Clinical Response of Live-Attenuated, Expressing Mesothelin (CRS-207) with Chemotherapy in Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Clin Cancer Res. 2019; 25(19):5787-5798. PMC: 8132300. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-0070. View

13.

Pease D, Kratzke R . Oncolytic Viral Therapy for Mesothelioma. Front Oncol. 2017; 7:179. PMC: 5573749. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2017.00179. View

14.

Baas P, Scherpereel A, Nowak A, Fujimoto N, Peters S, Tsao A . First-line nivolumab plus ipilimumab in unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma (CheckMate 743): a multicentre, randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2021; 397(10272):375-386. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32714-8. View

15.

Tay S, Carol H, Biro M . TriKEs and BiKEs join CARs on the cancer immunotherapy highway. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2016; 12(11):2790-2796. PMC: 5137511. DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2016.1198455. View

16.

Bibby A, Maskell N . Current treatments and trials in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Clin Respir J. 2018; 12(7):2161-2169. DOI: 10.1111/crj.12938. View

17.

Bonelli M, Fumarola C, La Monica S, Alfieri R . New therapeutic strategies for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Biochem Pharmacol. 2016; 123:8-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2016.07.012. View

18.

Ali G, Boldrini L, Lucchi M, Picchi A, DellOmodarme M, Prati M . Treatment with interleukin-2 in malignant pleural mesothelioma: immunological and angiogenetic assessment and prognostic impact. Br J Cancer. 2009; 101(11):1869-75. PMC: 2788262. DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605438. View

19.

Raghav K, Liu S, Overman M, Morani A, Willette A, Fournier K . Clinical Efficacy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Patients With Advanced Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma. JAMA Netw Open. 2021; 4(8):e2119934. PMC: 8346939. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.19934. View

20.

Maio M, Scherpereel A, Calabro L, Aerts J, Perez S, Bearz A . Tremelimumab as second-line or third-line treatment in relapsed malignant mesothelioma (DETERMINE): a multicentre, international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2b trial. Lancet Oncol. 2017; 18(9):1261-1273. DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30446-1. View