Onkologie. 2021:15(3):105-111 | DOI: 10.36290/xon.2021.019

Imunotherapy in gynaecological oncology

Monika Náležinská¹, Radek Lakomý², Josef Chovanec¹

¹ Oddělení gynekologické onkologie, Kliniky operační onkologie, Masarykův onkologický ústav a LF MU v Brně

² Klinika komplexní onkologické péče, Masarykův onkologický ústav a LF MU v Brně

Immunotherapy slowly enters the tool box of therapeutical methods in gynae-oncology, together with radical surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted agents. Surgical methods are curable in early clinical stages of gynae-malignancies, whereas advanced stages there require combination attitude involving the above mentioned methods. The goal of immunotherapy is to re-instal the cancer immunity cycle, whereas the major players are dendritic cells, cytotoxic T cells and the highly immunosupressive tumour microenvironment, with the blocators of immune checkpoints , such as programed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and of its ligands (PD-L1) or cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTL-4). There is a sound reason to use checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) in gynae-malignancies preferably in combinations, as we summarize in the rewiev article. As postulated in completed clinical trials, the best results in therms of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) is the use of combination: CPI (pembrolizumab) together with antiangiogenic agent lenvatinib in advanced endometrial carcinoma.

Keywords: gynae-oncology, immunotherapy, checkpoint inhibitors, chemotherapy.

Published: May 6, 2021  Show citation