Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer; the Road Less Traveled

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer shows extremely low responses to chemo- and radiation therapies due to its inherent genetic instability, immunosuppressive microenvironment, and the complex peritumoral stroma. They make the pancreatic cancer most lethal malignancy with 5 year survival of less than 6%, so the need of new therapeutic approaches is urgently demanded. Immunotherapies have shown promises in other multiple cancers by augmenting anti-tumor immunity, so it stood out for the alternative care of pancreatic cancer. However, up to now, immunotherapeutic agents lack efficacy in pancreatic cancer. In this review, we give an overview of immune-related therapeutic strategies, clinical trials in pancreatic cancer and current obstacles that we face. We discuss the ways to overcome those current obstacles here, and by getting over them, we hope to get over the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer.