The Paradoxical Roles of Inflammation during PD-1 Blockade in Cancer

Antibodies (Abs) blocking the programmed death-1 (PD-1) protein can trigger antitumor immunity in a number of cancer patients by counteracting CD8+ T cell exhaustion programs. A better understanding of inflammation and T cell exhaustion may lead to the design of more rational therapeutic combinations. PD-1 blockade triggers the expansion of an undifferentiated subset of exhausted CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment, which in response to...