Current Immunotherapeutic Approaches in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive and notoriously difficult to treat. As the vast majority of patients are diagnosed at advanced stage of the disease, only a small population is curative by surgical resection. Although gemcitabine-based chemotherapy is typically offered as standard of care, most patients do not survive longer than 6 months. Thus, new therapeutic approaches are needed. Pancreatic cancer cells that develop gemcitabine resistance would still be suitable targets for immunotherapy. Therefore, one promising treatment approach may be immunotherapy that is designed to target pancreatic-cancer-associated antigens. In this paper, we detail recent work in immunotherapy and the advances in concept of combination therapy of immunotherapy and chemotherapy. We offer our perspective on how to increase the clinical efficacy of immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer

Metabolism and transportation of AZA/6MP and its metabolites.

<p>XO, xanthine oxidase; TPMT, thiopurine S-methyltransferase; HGPRT, hypoxanthine–guanine phosphoribosyl transferase; ITPA, inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase; IMPDH, inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase; GMPS, guanosine monophosphate synthetase; AZA, azathioprine; 6-MP, 6-mercaptopurine; 6-TUA, 6-thiouric acid; 6-MeMP, 6-methylmercaptopurine; 6-MeMPR, 6-methylmercaptopurine ribonucleotide; 6-TIMP, 6-thioinosine monophosphate; 6-TIDP, 6-thioinosine diphosphate; 6-TITP, 6-thioinosine triphosphate; 6-MeTIMP, 6-methylthioinosine monophosphate; 6-MeTITP, 6-methylthioinosine triphosphate; 6-TXMP, 6-thioxanthosine 5’-monophosphate; 6-TGN, 6-thioguanine nucleotide; 6-MeTGN, 6-methylthioguanine nucleotide.</p

Characteristics of patients with <i>94C/A</i> ITPA mutation.

<p>UC, ulcerative colitis; CD, Crohn’s Disease; 5ASA, 5-aminosalicylic acid; IFX, infliximab</p><p>TPMT, Thiopurine <i>S</i>-methyltransferase; ITPA, Inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase</p><p>6-TGN, 6-thioguanine nucleotide. N.S., not significant.</p><p>Mean ± standard deviation</p><p>* Mann-Whitney’s U-test</p><p>** Chi-square test</p><p>*** t-test.</p><p>Characteristics of patients with <i>94C/A</i> ITPA mutation.</p

Baseline Patient Characteristics.

<p>UC, ulcerative colitis; CD, Crohn’s Disease; 5ASA, 5-aminosalicylic acid; IFX, infliximab</p><p>ARs, adverse reactions. Mean ± standard deviation</p><p>Baseline Patient Characteristics.</p