Generation of specific antitumor reactivity by the stimulation of spleen cells from gastric cancer patients with MAGE-3 synthetic peptide

Cellular immunotherapy in gastric cancer: adoptive cell therapy and dendritic cell-based vaccination

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies. Recent studies have highlighted cellular immunotherapy (CI) as a promising approach for treating this disease. Among the CI-based approaches, adoptive cell therapy and dendritic cell-based vaccination are commonly studied in preclinical and clinical trials. Here we review the current evidence on the potentiality of CI in treating GC, the targets for adoptive cell therapy, ongoing clinical trials, constraints and the future outlook. The results suggest that there is a need to identify novel biomarkers that predict which GC patients will most likely respond to these approaches. Also, CI plus chemotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors can improve the survival of patients with late-stage GC. Therefore, this approach can be promising for treating these patients.

Immunotherapy of gastric cancer: Past, future perspective and challenges

Gastric cancer is considered as the third leading cause of deaths and the fifth most common cancers worldwide. Common treatment approaches include chemotherapy, radiation, gastric resection and targeted therapies. The emergence of gastric cancer immunotherapy has already shown some promising results and have altered the therapeutic procedures. Now, different combination therapies as well as novel immunotherapies targeting new molecules have been proposed. Despite ongoing investigations on the therapeutic options and significant advancements in this regard, the disease is poorly prognosed. In fact, limited therapeutic options and delayed diagnosis lead to the progression, dissemination and metastasis of the disease. Current immunotherapies are mostly based on cytotoxic immunocytes, monoclonal antibodies and gene transferred vaccines. The use of Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have grown rapidly. In this review, we aimed to explore perspective and progression of different approaches of immunotherapy in the treatment of GC and the clinical outcomes reported so far. We also summarized the tumor immunosurveillance and tumor immunoescape.

Immunotherapy for Gastric Cancer: Time for a Personalized Approach?

Over the last decade, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying immune modulation has greatly improved, allowing for the development of multiple therapeutic approaches that are revolutionizing the treatment of cancer. Immunotherapy for gastric cancer (GC) is still in the early phases but is rapidly evolving. Recently, multi-platform molecular analyses of GC have proposed a new classification of this heterogeneous group of tumors, highlighting subset-specific features that may more reliably inform therapeutic choices, including the use of new immunotherapeutic drugs. The clinical benefit and improved survival observed in GC patients treated with immunotherapeutic strategies and their combination with conventional therapies highlighted the importance of the immune environment surrounding the tumor. A thorough investigation of the tumor microenvironment and the complex and dynamic interaction between immune cells and tumor cells is a fundamental requirement for the rational design of novel and more effective immunotherapeutic approaches. This review summarizes the pre-clinical and clinical results obtained so far with immunomodulatory and immunotherapeutic treatments for GC and discusses the novel combination strategies that are being investigated to improve the personalization and efficacy of GC immunotherapy.

Immunotherapeutic Strategies for Gastric Carcinoma: A Review of Preclinical and Clinical Recent Development

Gastric carcinoma (GC) is the 2nd most common cause of cancer-related death. Despite advances in conventional treatment and surgical interventions, a high percentage of GC patients still have poor survival. Recently, immunotherapy has become a promising approach to treat GC. Here, we present preclinical and clinical studies encouraging the use of vaccination, adoptive T-cell therapy (ACT), and immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) or cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4). The ongoing immunotherapy clinical trials have shown promising results in safety and tolerability even in late-stage GC patients. Moreover, we highlight that the combination of ACT with chemotherapy could be the best choice to treat GC.

The efficacy of adjuvant immunochemotherapy with OK-432 after curative resection of gastric cancer: an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND

OK-432 has been used as a cancer treatment for 40 years, and the immunostimulatory effects of OK-432 therapy have been intensely investigated in Japan. Recently, it has received attention as a possible booster for cancer vaccine treatments. Our previous meta-analysis based on summary measures revealed a significant improvement in the survival of patients with curatively resected gastric cancer. However, it is impossible to exclude the possibility of bias due to several prognostic factors.

METHODS

We collected individual data for patients with stage III or stage IV gastric cancer after curative resection from 14 trials that were identified in a previous meta-analysis. Immunochemotherapy with OK-432 was compared with treatment with standard chemotherapy on an intention-to-treat basis. The primary end point was overall survival. Stratified survival analyses were performed with the trial as the stratification factor. Subgroup analyses were also performed according to the potential prognostic factors, which included pathological factors, splenectomy, and delayed-type hypersensitivity.

RESULTS

There were 796 and 726 patients in the OK-432 and control groups, respectively. The median overall survival was 42.6 months for the OK-432 group and 32.3 months for the control group. The overall hazard ratio was 0.88 (95 % confidence interval 0.77-1.00, p = 0.050). No factor showed a statistically significant interaction in the subgroup analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that immunochemotherapy treatment with OK-432 could have a borderline significant effect for patients with stage III or stage IV gastric cancer after curative resection.

Molecular cloning and sequencing of feline melanoma antigen 2 (fMAGE-2) obtained from a lymphoma cell line

Melanoma antigens (MAGE), thought to induce tumor-specific immune responses, are used as potential therapeutical targets for cancer immunotherapy. We hereby report the cloning and sequencing of MAGE cDNA clone, called feline MAGE-2 (fMAGE-2), obtained from a lymphoma cell line. fMAGE-2 cDNA is 1535 base pairs (bp) in length and contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 1131 bp encoding a protein of 376 amino acids. The predicted amino acid sequence shows 45%, 32-42%, 44-47%, and 33% homology with feline MAGE-1, human MAGE-A, human MAGE-B, and human MAGE-C proteins, respectively. mRNA transcripts of fMAGE-2 were detected by RT-PCR in some feline tumors, as well as in testis of adult cat, but not in other normal tissues, indicating that the expression pattern of fMAGE-2 is similar to that of the human MAGE family genes in tumors and normal tissues.

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of feline melanoma antigen (MAGE) obtained from a lymphoma cell line

Melanoma antigens (MAGE) are regarded as inducing tumor-specific immune response and thought to be potential therapeutical agents for cancer immunotherapy. We hereby report the cloning of feline MAGE cDNA obtained from a lymphoma cell line derived from cat malignant lymphoma, and its expression pattern in tumor and normal tissues. The cDNA encoding the MAGE is 1668 base pairs (bp) in length, and contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 936 bp encoding a protein of 311 amino acids. The predicted amino acid sequence has 29-46% of homology with other MAGE proteins from human and mouse. mRNA transcripts for the feline MAGE were detected in certain tumors, but not in adult cat normal tissues except in testis, by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. This indicates that the expression pattern of feline MAGE mRNA is similar to those of other MAGE family genes in tumors and normal tissues.

Cloning and sequencing of canine MAGE cDNA

Melanoma antigens (MAGE) are regarded to induce tumour-specific immune response and thought to be potential therapeutical agents for cancer immunotherapy. We hereby report the canine MAGE cDNA cloned from the testis of a beagle dog. Canine MAGE cDNA is 1,455 base pair (bp) nucleotides in length, and contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,137 bp nucleotides encoding a protein of 378 amino acids. The predicted amino acid sequence has 22-49% of homology with other MAGE proteins. mRNA transcripts of canine MAGE were detected only in the melanoma and testis and not in other normal tissues of adult dog by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), indicating that the expression pattern of canine MAGE mRNA is similar to that of the MAGE family genes in tumor and normal tissues.