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The January 2017 special issue on cancer immunotherapy brings together a series of authoritative reviews from outstanding experts in the field. The current understanding, as well as recent advances in various aspects of cancer immunotherapy, challenges in the fast growing field, and potentially important directions for future study, are presented. Further background information on this important topic is available through the accompanying web focus which links to related articles from Nature.
Chronic infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus promotes the establishment of a population of stem-like PD-1+ CD8+ T cells that reside in lymphoid tissues and preferentially expand when the PD-1 inhibitory pathway is blocked.
Analyses of tumour samples and tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes from two patients with melanoma who were treated with adoptive T-cell therapy provide evidence for tumour escape by loss and downregulation of immunogenic antigens.
The development of a nanoparticle RNA vaccine is reported that preferentially targets dendritic cells after systemic administration, and is shown to provide durable interferon-α-dependent antigen-specific immunity in mouse tumour models; initial results in advanced melanoma patients indicate potential efficacy in humans.
A study of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma shows that cancer cell proliferation is associated with increased expression of proteins that control programmed necrotic cell death and suppress the adaptive immune system.