| Summary: | In the last two decades, cancer immunotherapy has become one of the most
promising strategies for cancer treatment. Understanding the link between the
immune responses and cancer was essential to the development of these novel
therapies.
In the late 1950’s, Burnet and Thomas suggested the role of the immune system in the
repression of carcinomas (1,2). In 2013, Chen and Mellman (3) published “the cancerImmunity cycle” that conceptually described the indispensable steps for an effective
antitumor response (figure 1). The cycle starts with the release of neoantigens by the
cancer cells which are captured by the dendritic cells (DCs) for processing. DCs migrate
to lymph nodes where they present processed antigens to T cells, activating effector T
cell responses. Finally, the activated T cells traffic to the tumor bed where they
specifically kill tumor cells which releases additional tumor antigens (3). If this cycle
works properly, the immune cells can eliminate or control the tumor. However, cancer
cells have developed different mechanisms to resist the immune system attack.
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