Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 7, 2017; 23(17): 3017-3021
Published online May 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i17.3017
Checkpoint inhibitors in gastrointestinal cancers: Expectations and reality
Hampig Raphael Kourie, Samer Tabchi, Marwan Ghosn
Hampig Raphael Kourie, Samer Tabchi, Marwan Ghosn, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Beirut 166830, Lebanon
Author contributions: Kourie HR and Tabchi S initiated and wrote the editorial; Ghosn M reviewed the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors do not have any conflict of interest.
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: Marwan Ghosn, MD, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Alfred Naccache, Beirut 166830, Lebanon. marwanghosnmd@yahoo.com
Telephone: +961-3-226842 Fax: +961-1-613397
Received: July 28, 2016
Peer-review started: August 2, 2016
First decision: September 20, 2016
Revised: March 11, 2017
Accepted: March 31, 2017
Article in press: March 31, 2017
Published online: May 7, 2017
Processing time: 282 Days and 1.7 Hours
Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors represent revolutionary anti-cancer agents, being rapidly approved in different malignancies and settings. Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers represent a wide variety of tumors with specific characteristics and different responses to various therapeutic alternatives; while some are chemo-sensitive others are chemo-resistant and only respond to more aggressive cytotoxic regimens, targeted therapies or a combination of both. Preliminary results of immune checkpoint inhibitors in some GI cancers are promising, namely in hepatocellular carcinoma, anal cancers and microsatellite instability high colorectal cancers. An impressive instead of a impressive number of immune checkpoint inhibitors are being evaluated in different indications in GI cancers as single agents or in combination with other agents. We reported in this paper ongoing and published trials evaluating immune checkpoint inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancers, esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, colorectal and anal cancers and we discussed the future perspectives of these agents in GI cancers.

Keywords: Immunotherapies; Cancers; Digestive; Checkpoint inhibitors; Gastrointestinal

Core tip: Immune checkpoint inhibitors represent new promising anti-cancer therapies, rapidly approved in different malignancies and settings. We aimed in this editorial to report all the ongoing and published trials evaluating these agents in gastro-intestinal malignancies, to focus on the past expectations and the reality of the results and finally, to discuss the future perspectives of these agents in this field.