PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in cervical cancer: current studies and perspectives

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed female malignancy and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, especially in developing countries. Despite the use of advanced screening and preventive vaccines, more than half of all CC cases are diagnosed at advanced stages, when therapeutic options are extremely limited and side effects are severe. Given these circumstances, new and effective treatments are needed. In recent years, exciting progress has been made in immunotherapies, including the rapid development of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Checkpoint blockades targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis have achieved effective clinical responses with acceptable toxicity by suppressing tumor progression and improving survival in several tumor types. In this review, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway, including the expression patterns of PD-1/PD-L1 and potential PD-1/PD-L1-related therapeutic strategies for CC.

Keywords

PD-1 / PD-L1 / immune checkpoint blockade antibody / immunotherapy / cervical cancer

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81373867).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Yumeng Wang and Guiling Li declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol that requires the approval of the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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