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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2016; 22(43): 9457-9476
Published online Nov 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i43.9457
Immune checkpoint therapy for pancreatic cancer
Henrik Johansson, Roland Andersson, Monika Bauden, Sarah Hammes, Stefan Holdenrieder, Daniel Ansari
Henrik Johansson, Roland Andersson, Monika Bauden, Daniel Ansari, Department of Surgery, Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, and Skåne University Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden
Sarah Hammes, Stefan Holdenrieder, Institute of Laboratory Medicine, German Heart Center at the Technical University Munich, 80331 Munich, Germany
Author contributions: Johansson H conducted the literature search and drafted the manuscript; Ansari D conceived the study; all authors were involved in manuscript writing, read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Daniel Ansari, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, and Skåne University Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden. daniel.ansari@med.lu.se
Telephone: + 46-46-2224672
Received: July 24, 2016
Peer-review started: July 26, 2016
First decision: September 12, 2016
Revised: September 18, 2016
Accepted: October 19, 2016
Article in press: October 19, 2016
Published online: November 21, 2016
Processing time: 116 Days and 18.7 Hours
Abstract

Novel treatment modalities are necessary for pancreatic cancer. Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibition has shown effect in other solid tumors, and could have a place in pancreatic cancer treatment. Most available clinical studies on immune checkpoint inhibitors for pancreatic cancer are not yet completed and are still recruiting patients. Among the completed trials, there have been findings of a preliminary nature such as delayed disease progression and enhanced overall survival after treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors in mono- or combination therapy. However, due to small sample sizes, major results are not yet identifiable. The present article provides a clinical overview of immune checkpoint inhibition in pancreatic cancer. PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov and American Society of Clinical Oncology’s meeting abstracts were systematically searched for relevant clinical studies. Four articles, five abstracts and 25 clinical trials were identified and analyzed in detail.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Clinical trials

Core tip: Immunotherapy is a rapidly expanding field within pancreatic cancer research. Here we summarize the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibition in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, focusing on the anti-tumor response and toxicity of drugs targeting cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4, programmed cell death 1 and programmed cell death ligand 1. Based on the results from small series it appears that immune checkpoint inhibitors may be safe and effective, but still little published evidence is available to prove or disprove the clinical benefit of these drugs in patients with pancreatic cancer. Several well-designed clinical trials are ongoing and the results from these trials are eagerly awaited.