Immunology and ovarian cancers

Abstract

The current standard therapy of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the combination of surgery and multiagent chemotherapy with/without adding targeted therapy. After treatment, response rate is high and nearly all patients can achieve complete remission, even though they are advanced diseases; however, the majority of patients will relapse and subsequently die of diseases within several years after initial treatment. When treatment options are limited, there is the urgent need for new novel therapeutic approaches for precise cancer control. The development of chemoresistance and evading of the anticancer immune response may be one of the important causes contributing to the therapeutic failure, and therefore, it represents a paradigm shift in cancer research. An individual’s immune response and interaction with EOC cells might be one of the key factors for cancer treatment. There are many interventions, including targeting certain type immunogenic EOC-associated antigens, immune checkpoint blockade, and adoptive cellular therapy, which present a profound opportunity to revolutionize EOC treatment. This review will encompass the interaction between EOC and immune system and highlight recent data regarding the research of immunotherapy in EOC.