Harnessing antitumor immunity: Employment of tumor recall antigens to optimize the inflammatory response to cancer

The advent of immunotherapy for cancer has contributed to the era of personalized medicine for cancer. The various immunotherapy-based treatments that have been explored thus far include monoclonal antibody therapy, tumor vaccines, immune checkpoint blockade and adoptive T cell transfer, among others. The groundwork for all these immunotherapeutic modalities rests within the tumor microenvironment, specifically the immune factors that influence the tumor-drug interface. Prior to therapeutic design, the tumor microenvironmental interactions and the current barriers to successful treatment must first be understood. In the present review, it is proposed that cancer cell eradication within the tumor niche may be achieved by reprogramming of the immune microenvironment in favor of a pro-inflammatory antitumor profile at an early stage. This pro-inflammatory profile may, in turn, be influenced by tumor recall antigens, which function to stimulate the cell-mediated or humoral responses involved in antitumor immunity. These measures serve to counteract the immunotolerant state of the tumor microenvironment. Such measures are critical to therapeutic successes.