AUTHOR=Swart Maarten , Verbrugge Inge , Beltman Joost B. 

TITLE=Combination Approaches with Immune-Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Therapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2016

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2016.00233

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2016.00233

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=In healthy individuals, immune checkpoint molecules prevent autoimmune responses and limit immune cell-mediated tissue damage. Tumors frequently exploit these molecules to evade eradication by the immune system. Over the past years, immune checkpoint blockade of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) and programmed death-1 (PD-1) emerged as promising strategies to activate anti-tumor cytotoxic T cell responses. Although complete regression and long-term survival is achieved in some patients, not all patients respond. This review describes promising, novel combination approaches involving immune checkpoint blockade, aimed at increasing response-rates to the single treatments.