Cancer Cell
Volume 27, Issue 4, 13 April 2015, Pages 450-461
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Immune Checkpoint Blockade: A Common Denominator Approach to Cancer Therapy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2015.03.001Get rights and content
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The immune system recognizes and is poised to eliminate cancer but is held in check by inhibitory receptors and ligands. These immune checkpoint pathways, which normally maintain self-tolerance and limit collateral tissue damage during anti-microbial immune responses, can be co-opted by cancer to evade immune destruction. Drugs interrupting immune checkpoints, such as anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, and others in early development, can unleash anti-tumor immunity and mediate durable cancer regressions. The complex biology of immune checkpoint pathways still contains many mysteries, and the full activity spectrum of checkpoint-blocking drugs, used alone or in combination, is currently the subject of intense study.

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