Clinical relevance and therapeutic aspects of professional antigen-presenting cells in lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer stays the preeminent cause of death worldwide. Despite recent advancements in chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, the survival rate for people with advanced stages of the disease is still appalling. Moreover, there is a severe lack of reliable prognoses and indicators for classification in newly developed immunotherapies. A better understanding of immune cells is necessary to harness immune response mechanisms for therapeutic effects. Professional antigen-presenting cells are responsible for determining the fate of the immune response through the antigen processing and presentation pathway (APP). The most professional antigen-presenting cells (APC) include the dendritic cells (DC), macrophages, and B cells, which present antigens to the T-helper cells. Dendritic cells are significantly explored as a tool for immunotherapy owing to their precise ability to provoke and alter T-cell responses. Moreover, the role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), an abundant leukocyte in lung cancer, is also a potential target for adjuvant anti-cancer therapies. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in our understanding of the various types of immunotherapy mapped out via professional antigen-presenting cells in lung cancer.

Keywords: Antigen-presenting cells; Cytotoxic T lymphocytes; Dendritic cells; Macrophages; Tumor-associated macrophages.