Antibody–Drug Conjugates and Cancer Immunotherapy

A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Biology and Oncology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2024 | Viewed by 887

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Guest Editor
Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston, ON K7L 2V7, Canada
Interests: clinical and translational research; mechanisms of resistance to anticancer drugs; immunotherapy, non-invasive biomarkers
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are powerful anticancer agents designed for target delivery of cytotoxic molecules. Several studies indicate that ADCs have immunostimulatory properties through different mechanisms, including macrophage reprogramming and T memory cell generation. These observations led to growing interest in the development of ADCs specifically designed to boost the immune response through the delivery of immuno-stimulant payloads or by targeting the tumor microenvironment. Despite this, many questions remain open: can immuno-stimulant ADCs induce a response in "cold tumors", refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors? Can ADCs revert immunotherapy resistance? Do ADCs and immunotherapy agents have a synergistic effect? Is there an optimal sequence for treatment in cancers with known sensitivity to ADCs and immunotherapy? The publication of a Special Issue may facilitate solutions to some of these questions and support the development of effective treatment strategies for cancer patients.

Dr. Sofia Genta
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • ADC
  • immunotherapy
  • cancer
  • drug resistance
  • tumor microenvironment

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 1525 KiB  
Review
Antibody-Drug Conjugates to Promote Immune Surveillance: Lessons Learned from Breast Cancer
by Sabrina Nucera, Chiara Conti, Federica Martorana, Brooke Wilson and Sofia Genta
Biomedicines 2024, 12(7), 1491; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12071491 - 5 Jul 2024
Viewed by 557
Abstract
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent an effective class of agents for the treatment of several tumor types, including breast cancer (BC), featuring approved molecules such as trastuzumab-emtansine, trastuzumab-deruxtecan, and sacituzumab-govitecan. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) also showed activity in selected BC subtypes, and two agents, pembrolizumab [...] Read more.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent an effective class of agents for the treatment of several tumor types, including breast cancer (BC), featuring approved molecules such as trastuzumab-emtansine, trastuzumab-deruxtecan, and sacituzumab-govitecan. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) also showed activity in selected BC subtypes, and two agents, pembrolizumab and atezolizumab, are currently approved for the treatment of triple-negative BC patients. The potential synergy between ADCs and immunotherapy in BC remains an area of active investigation. Preclinical studies suggest that ADCs promote immune surveillance, modulating tumor microenvironment, inducing immunogenic cell death, and enhancing antitumor immunity. Translational evidence has shown potential predictive biomarkers for ADCs alone or in combination with immunotherapy, including expression of target antigen, oncogenic pathways, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. Given this background, several clinical trials evaluated ADC-ICI combinations in BC patients, demonstrating promising outcomes with an overall manageable toxicity profile, and many studies are currently ongoing to confirm the efficacy and feasibility of this therapeutic approach. In the present review, we summarized the available evidence about the integration of ADCs and immunotherapy for the management of BC, emphasizing the need for further translational and clinical investigations to optimize this treatment strategy and elucidate predictive biomarkers, eventually improving patient outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibody–Drug Conjugates and Cancer Immunotherapy)
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