New immunotherapy strategies and related therapeutic targets for gastrointestinal malignancies

Download or read book New immunotherapy strategies and related therapeutic targets for gastrointestinal malignancies written by Chi Chun Wong and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-03-13 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Currently, the treatment options for gastrointestinal malignancies mainly include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and molecular targeted therapy, etc. Drug therapy is one of the main treatments for patients with advanced stages, but the efficacy of chemotherapy seems to have reached a plateau, and the progress of traditional molecular targeted therapy is relatively slow. In addition, the benefits of the current chemotherapy combined with targeted therapy for patients with advanced stages of gastrointestinal malignancies are still not satisfactory. Tumor immunotherapy is an emerging therapeutic approach and is a current research hotspot, and there are hopes that immunotherapy can help further improve the prognosis and quality of life for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. At the same time, potential targets of immunotherapeutic drugs and prognostic biomarkers for gastrointestinal malignancies have been less studied than other common cancers, such as lung cancer. Prognostic biomarker studies are the beginning of exploring new drug targets and revealing potential mechanisms of tumor progression. Immunotherapies, particularly PD1 or PD-L1 antagonists, have demonstrated effective therapeutic efficacy against various types of cancer. To date, many PD1 drugs are available for cancer treatment, and more than 100 PD1 drugs are in clinical trials. However, the question of how to screen sensitive patients and predict the efficacy of immunotherapy remains unresolved. In addition, predictive biomarkers and treatment guidelines for immunotherapy of gastrointestinal malignancies have hardly been studied.