Immunotherapy-based combination strategies for treatment of gastrointestinal cancers: current status and future prospects

Abstract

Strategies in comprehensive therapy for gastrointestinal (GI) cancer have been optimized in the last decades to improve patients’ outcomes. However, treatment options remain limited for late-stage or refractory diseases. The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for treatment of refractory GI cancer has been confirmed by randomized clinical trials. In 2017, pembrolizumab was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as the first agent for treatment of metastatic solid tumors with mismatch repair deficiency, especially for colorectal cancer. Given the different mechanisms, oncologists have focused on determining whether ICIs-based combination strategies could achieve higher efficacy than conventional therapy alone in late-stage or even front-line treatment of GI cancer. This review discusses the current status of combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with molecular targeted therapy, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy in GI cancer in terms of mechanisms, safety, and efficacy to provide basis for future research.

Keywords

gastrointestinal cancer / immune checkpoint inhibitor / combination therapy

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81672327 and 81802319 ) and Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (No. 17XD1402600) and Program for Outstanding Medical Academic Leader and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission—Gaofeng Clinical Medicine Grant Support (No. 20161410) and Development Grant for Clinical Trial (No. SHDC12017X06).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Chenfei Zhou and Jun Zhang declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by a relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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