Immunogenic Cell Death in Cancer Therapy.

Depending on the initiating stimulus, cancer cell death can be immuno-genic or nonimmunogenic. Immunogenic cell death (ICD) involves changes in the composition of the cell surface as well as the release of soluble mediators, occurring in a defined temporal sequence. Such signals operate on a series of receptors expressed by dendritic cells to stimulate the presentation of tumor antigens to T cells. We postulate that ICD constitutes a prominent pathway for the activation of the im-mune system against cancer, which in turn determines the long-term success of anticancer therapies. Hence, suboptimal regimens (failing to induce ICD), selective alterations in cancer cells (preventing die emis-sion of immunogenic signals during ICD), or defects in immune effec-tors (abolishing the perception of ICD by the immune system) can all contribute to therapeutic failure. We surmise that ICD and its subver-sion by pathogens also play major roles in antiviral immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]