Novel Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Targets in Advanced or Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

J Clin Med. 2024 Sep 26;13(19):5738. doi: 10.3390/jcm13195738.

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have become the cornerstone of treatment in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), for both metastatic disease and in an adjuvant setting. However, an adaptive resistance from cancer cells may arise during ICI treatment, therefore many studies are focusing on additional immune checkpoint inhibitor pathways. Promising targets of immunotherapeutic agents under investigation include T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), immunoglobulin-like transcript 4 (ILT4), lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), vaccines, T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. In this review of the literature, we recollect the current knowledge of the novel treatment strategies in the field of immunotherapy that are being investigated in RCC and analyze their mechanism of action, their activity and the clinical studies that are currently underway.

Keywords: ICI; ILT4; LAG-3; RCC; TIGIT; TIM-3; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; renal cell carcinoma; vaccine.

Publication types

  • Review