TY - JOUR
T1 - Anti-angiogenic agents — overcoming tumour endothelial cell anergy and improving immunotherapy outcomes
AU - Huinen, Zowi R.
AU - Huijbers, Elisabeth J. M.
AU - van Beijnum, Judy R.
AU - Nowak-Sliwinska, Patrycja
AU - Griffioen, Arjan W.
N1 - Funding Information: The work of P.N-S. is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 310030_197878). The work of A.W.G. is supported by the KWF Cancer Society (grant 2018–11651). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Springer Nature Limited. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized medical oncology, although currently only a subset of patients has a response to such treatment. A compelling body of evidence indicates that anti-angiogenic therapy has the capacity to ameliorate antitumour immunity owing to the inhibition of various immunosuppressive features of angiogenesis. Hence, combinations of anti-angiogenic agents and immunotherapy are currently being tested in >90 clinical trials and 5 such combinations have been approved by the FDA in the past few years. In this Perspective, we describe how the angiogenesis-induced endothelial immune cell barrier hampers antitumour immunity and the role of endothelial cell anergy as the vascular counterpart of immune checkpoints. We review the antitumour immunity-promoting effects of anti-angiogenic agents and provide an update on the current clinical successes achieved when these agents are combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Finally, we propose that anti-angiogenic agents are immunotherapies — and vice versa — and discuss future research priorities.
AB - Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized medical oncology, although currently only a subset of patients has a response to such treatment. A compelling body of evidence indicates that anti-angiogenic therapy has the capacity to ameliorate antitumour immunity owing to the inhibition of various immunosuppressive features of angiogenesis. Hence, combinations of anti-angiogenic agents and immunotherapy are currently being tested in >90 clinical trials and 5 such combinations have been approved by the FDA in the past few years. In this Perspective, we describe how the angiogenesis-induced endothelial immune cell barrier hampers antitumour immunity and the role of endothelial cell anergy as the vascular counterpart of immune checkpoints. We review the antitumour immunity-promoting effects of anti-angiogenic agents and provide an update on the current clinical successes achieved when these agents are combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Finally, we propose that anti-angiogenic agents are immunotherapies — and vice versa — and discuss future research priorities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104077387&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-021-00496-y
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-021-00496-y
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33833434
SN - 1759-4774
VL - 18
SP - 527
EP - 540
JO - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
JF - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
IS - 8
ER -