Preclinical and Clinical Immunotherapeutic Strategies in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

• Main Authors: Alejandra Martinez, Jean-Pierre Delord, Maha Ayyoub, Christel Devaud
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: Epithelial ovarian cancer; immune contexture; tumor microenvironment; adaptive and innate immune responses; lymphocytes; immunogenicity
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/12/7/1761

In the past 20 years, the immune system has increasingly been recognized as a major player in tumor cell control, leading to considerable advances in cancer treatment. While promising with regards to melanoma, renal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, immunotherapy provides, for the time being, limited success in other cancers, including ovarian cancer, potentially due to insufficient immunogenicity or to a particularly immunosuppressive microenvironment. In this review, we provide a global description of the immune context of ovarian cancer, in particular epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We describe the adaptive and innate components involved in the EOC immune response, including infiltrating tumor-specific T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and natural killer and myeloid cells. In addition, we highlight the rationale behind the use of EOC preclinical mouse models to assess resistance to immunotherapy, and we summarize the main preclinical studies that yielded anti-EOC immunotherapeutic strategies. Finally, we focus on major published or ongoing immunotherapy clinical trials concerning EOC.