How to develop better screens for anti-cancer therapies?

The clinical efficacy of chemotherapy relies in part on its ability to potentiate anti-tumor immune responses. Recent work shows that several chemotherapeutic drugs induce intra-tumoral expression of lymphocyte-attracting chemokines, leading to clinical responses. Here, we argue that such knowledge should be used to screen for novel anti-tumor treatments

Immune Microenvironment in Tumor Progression: Characteristics and Challenges for Therapy

The tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in cancer development, progression, and control. The molecular and cellular nature of the tumor immune microenvironment influences disease outcome by altering the balance of suppressive versus cytotoxic responses in the vicinity of the tumor. Recent developments in systems biology have improved our understanding of the complex interactions between tumors and their immunological microenvironment in various human cancers. Effective tumor surveillance by the host immune system protects against disease, but chronic inflammation and tumor “immunoediting” have also been implicated in disease development and progression. Accordingly, reactivation and maintenance of appropriate antitumor responses within the tumor microenvironment correlate with a good prognosis in cancer patients. Improved understanding of the factors that shape the tumor microenvironment will be critical for the development of effective future strategies for disease management. The manipulation of these microenvironmental factors is already emerging as a promising tool for novel cancer treatments. In this paper, we summarize the various roles of the tumor microenvironment in cancer, focusing on immunological mediators of tumor progression and control, as well as the significant challenges for future therapies

Macrophage depletion reduces postsurgical tumor recurrence and metastatic growth in a spontaneous murine model of melanoma

International audienceSurgical resection of tumors is often followed by regrowth at the primary site and metastases may emerge rapidly following removal of the primary tumor. Macrophages are important drivers of tumor growth, and here we investigated their involvement in postoperative relapse as well as explore macrophage depletion as an adjuvant to surgical resection. RETAAD mice develop spontaneous metastatic melanoma that begins in the eye. Removal of the eyes as early as 1 week of age did not prevent the development of metastases; rather, surgery led to increased proliferation of tumor cells locally and in distant metastases. Surgery-induced increase in tumor cell proliferation correlated with increased macrophage density within the tumor. Moreover, macrophages stimulate tumor sphere formation from tumor cells of post-surgical but not control mice. Macrophage depletion with a diet containing the CSF-1R specific kinase inhibitor Ki20227 following surgery significantly reduced postoperative tumor recurrence and abrogated enhanced metastatic outgrowth. Our results confirm that tumor cells disseminate early, and show that macrophages contribute both to post-surgical tumor relapse and growth of metastases, likely through stimulating a population of tumor-initiating cells. Thus macrophage depletion warrants exploration as an adjuvant to surgical resection

Melanoma-initiating cells exploit M2 macrophage TGFβ and arginase pathway for survival and proliferation

International audienceM2 macrophages promote tumor growth and metastasis, but their interactions with specific tumor cell populations are poorly characterized. Using a mouse model of spontaneous melanoma, we showed that CD34 -but not CD34 + tumor-initiating cells (TICs) depend on M2 macrophages for survival and proliferation. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and macrophage-conditioned media protected CD34 -TICs from chemotherapy in vitro. In vivo, while inhibition of CD115 suppressed the macrophage-dependent CD34 -TIC population, chemotherapy accelerated its development. The ability of TICs to respond to TAMs was acquired during melanoma progression and immediately preceded a surge in metastatic outgrowth. TAM-derived transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) and polyamines produced via the Arginase pathway were critical for stimulation of TICs and synergized to promote their growth

Chemokine-driven lymphocyte infiltration: an early intratumoural event determining long-term survival in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a heterogeneous disease with poor prognosis and limited methods for predicting patient survival. The nature of the immune cells that infiltrate tumours is known to impact clinical outcome. However, the molecular events that regulate this infiltration require further understanding. Here the ability of immune genes expressed in the tumour microenvironment to predict disease progression was investigated.MethodsUsing quantitative PCR, the expression of 14 immune genes in resected tumour tissues from 57 Singaporean patients was analysed. The nearest-template prediction method was used to derive and test a prognostic signature from this training cohort. The signature was then validated in an independent cohort of 98 patients from Hong Kong and Zurich. Intratumoural components expressing these critical immune genes were identified by in situ labelling. Regulation of these genes was analysed in vitro using the HCC cell line SNU-182.ResultsThe identified 14 immune-gene signature predicts patient survival in both the training cohort (p=0.0004 and HR=5.2) and the validation cohort (p=0.0051 and HR=2.5) irrespective of patient ethnicity and disease aetiology. Importantly, it predicts the survival of patients with early disease (stages I and II), for whom classical clinical parameters provide limited information. The lack of predictive power in late disease stages III and IV emphasises that a protective immune microenvironment has to be established early in order to impact disease progression significantly. This signature includes the chemokine genes CXCL10, CCL5 and CCL2, whose expression correlates with markers of T helper 1 (Th1), CD8(+) T and natural killer (NK) cells. Inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor α, interferon γ) and Toll-like receptor 3 ligands stimulate intratumoural production of these chemokines which drive tumour infiltration by T and NK cells, leading to enhanced cancer cell death.ConclusionA 14 immune-gene signature, which identifies molecular cues driving tumour infiltration by lymphocytes, accurately predicts survival of patients with HCC especially in early disease

T Cells Contribute to Tumor Progression by Favoring Pro-Tumoral Properties of Intra-Tumoral Myeloid Cells in a Mouse Model for Spontaneous Melanoma

Tumors affect myelopoeisis and induce the expansion of myeloid cells with immunosuppressive activity. In the MT/ret model of spontaneous metastatic melanoma, myeloid cells are the most abundant tumor infiltrating hematopoietic population and their proportion is highest in the most aggressive cutaneous metastasis. Our data suggest that the tumor microenvironment favors polarization of myeloid cells into type 2 cells characterized by F4/80 expression, a weak capacity to secrete IL-12 and a high production of arginase. Myeloid cells from tumor and spleen of MT/ret mice inhibit T cell proliferation and IFNγ secretion. Interestingly, T cells play a role in type 2 polarization of myeloid cells. Indeed, intra-tumoral myeloid cells from MT/ret mice lacking T cells are not only less suppressive towards T cells than corresponding cells from wild-type MT/ret mice, but they also inhibit more efficiently melanoma cell proliferation. Thus, our data support the existence of a vicious circle, in which T cells may favor cancer development by establishing an environment that is likely to skew myeloid cell immunity toward a tumor promoting response that, in turn, suppresses immune effector cell functions

Classification of current anticancer immunotherapies

During the past decades, anticancer immunotherapy has evolved from a promising therapeutic option to a robust clinical reality. Many immunotherapeutic regimens are now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for use in cancer patients, and many others are being investigated as standalone therapeutic interventions or combined with conventional treatments in clinical studies. Immunotherapies may be subdivided into “passive” and “active” based on their ability to engage the host immune system against cancer. Since the anticancer activity of most passive immunotherapeutics (including tumor-targeting monoclonal antibodies) also relies on the host immune system, this classification does not properly reflect the complexity of the drug-host-tumor interaction. Alternatively, anticancer immunotherapeutics can be classified according to their antigen specificity. While some immunotherapies specifically target one (or a few) defined tumor-associated antigen(s), others operate in a relatively non-specific manner and boost natural or therapy-elicited anticancer immune responses of unknown and often broad specificity. Here, we propose a critical, integrated classification of anticancer immunotherapies and discuss the clinical relevance of these approaches