Harmful cytokines in cancer immunology and immunotherapy: biomarkers and targets?

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) represented a major breakthrough for the treatment of human cancer. Most patients, however, do not benefit from treatment with these agents, thus making it necessary to identify biomarkers that allow a better stratification of patients based on their potential sensitivity to ICI. Cytokines are protein mediators of cell-to-cell communication usually acting in a paracrine fashion involving their release to the...