Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from numerous\u00a0parts, mainly the outer lining of the ovary called germinal\u00a0epithelium. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death\u00a0among women, which causes more death than any other\u00a0gynecologic cancers. Usually, early ovarian cancer has\u00a0no obvious symptoms, and it is sometimes called \u201csilent\u00a0killer\u201d because the disease often progresses before symptoms\u00a0arise. Some women experience persistent and non-specific\u00a0symptoms including bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, or possibly urinary symptoms. The incidence of ovarian cancer increases with age and\u00a0is most prevalent in the eighth decade of life.<\/p>\n
The exact cause of ovarian cancer is unknown. It may be\u00a0affected by several factors such as, age, body weight, genetic\u00a0mutation, Lynch syndrome, and postmenopausal estrogen therapy. Currently, the standard treatment for ovarian cancer\u00a0includes debulking surgery, combining a platinum-based (usually carboplatin) and a taxane-based (usually paclitaxel) therapy. Despite the advances in surgery and chemotherapy over the\u00a0last 20 years, the patients suffer from severe side effects caused\u00a0by chemotherapy, and approximately 70\u201380 % of ovarian\u00a0cancer might have a recurrence of their disease after first-line\u00a0chemotherapy. So, the new therapeutic approaches are\u00a0necessary that can prevent cancer recurrence. A promising\u00a0and potential approach is found in immunotherapy that can\u00a0establish a sustained immune system response against recurring\u00a0cancer cells leading to long-term remissions for ovarian cancer\u00a0patients.<\/p>\n
Cancer immunotherapy<\/a> Checkpoint inhibitors in ovarian cancer immunotherapy Checkpoint inhibitors that augment the anti-cancer immunity include anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen (CTLA)-4<\/a>,\u00a0anti-programmed death (PD)-1<\/a>, and anti-PD ligand (PD-L1<\/a>),\u00a0which have been tested clinically to date. The usage of\u00a0immune checkpoint inhibitors is a promising systemic therapeutic approach to achieve durable responses or even cure in\u00a0ovarian cancer and other malignancies (a list of promising\u00a0checkpoint inhibitors is presented in Table 1). The ultimate\u00a0goal of these agents is to induce a targeted immune response\u00a0against cancer cells. The schematic representation of the\u00a0action of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer immunotherapy is presented in Fig. 1.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reference:<\/p>\n Dong-hui Wang & Liang Guo & Xiao-hua Wu. Tumor Biol. (2015) 36:33\u201339<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from numerous\u00a0parts, mainly the outer lining of the ovary called germinal\u00a0epithelium. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death\u00a0among women, which causes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[285,284,278,283,277],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe immune system plays a critical role in cancer control\u00a0through the dynamic association with tumor cells. The key\u00a0features of an effective immune response include specificity,\u00a0stability, trafficking, and antigen spread by which the immune\u00a0system contributes to the recognition and rejection of malignant cells. Cancer cells express a variety of tumor antigens,\u00a0which are the targets for an immune response. However,\u00a0spontaneous immune responses to these antigens are thought\u00a0to be responsible for the failure of the immune control and\u00a0thus insufficient for tumor regression. The identification of\u00a0key molecules that restore the ability of the immune system to\u00a0fight cancer and infections has led to the development of novel\u00a0immunotherapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. The\u00a0goal of cancer immunotherapy is to induce anti-tumor responses, augment immune surveillance, and relieve immune\u00a0suppression by the host immune system.<\/p>\n
\nA promising avenue of immunotherapeutic research in cancer\u00a0is the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which work by\u00a0targeting molecules that serve as checks and balances in the\u00a0regulation of immune responses. Immune checkpoints\u00a0are the co-inhibitory molecules, essential for the maintenance\u00a0of self-tolerance to prevent immune over-activation and host\u00a0tissue damage under normal physiologic conditions. But\u00a0in the diseased condition, cancer takes advantage of this\u00a0ability to hide from the immune system by manipulating a\u00a0series of immune escape mechanisms that were developed to\u00a0evade the host immune system by inhibiting Tcells, which are\u00a0specific for tumor antigens. Blockade of these immune checkpoints by antibodies or modulated by recombinant forms of\u00a0ligands or receptors (commonly called checkpoint inhibitors)\u00a0can significantly enhance anti-cancer immunity or reawaken\u00a0silenced immune responses. In this review, we have\u00a0discussed the mechanism of actions and the therapeutic use of\u00a0checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of ovarian cancer with\u00a0clinical success and future management.<\/p>\n