AUTHOR=Bruni Sofia , Mercogliano María Florencia , Mauro Florencia Luciana , Cordo Russo Rosalia Inés , Schillaci Roxana 

TITLE=Cancer immune exclusion: breaking the barricade for a successful immunotherapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2023.1135456

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2023.1135456

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<p>Immunotherapy has changed the course of cancer treatment. The initial steps were made through tumor-specific antibodies that guided the setup of an antitumor immune response. A new and successful generation of antibodies are designed to target immune checkpoint molecules aimed to reinvigorate the antitumor immune response. The cellular counterpart is the adoptive cell therapy, where specific immune cells are expanded or engineered to target cancer cells. In all cases, the key for achieving positive clinical resolutions rests upon the access of immune cells to the tumor. In this review, we focus on how the tumor microenvironment architecture, including stromal cells, immunosuppressive cells and extracellular matrix, protects tumor cells from an immune attack leading to immunotherapy resistance, and on the available strategies to tackle immune evasion.</p>