Immunome profiling in prostate cancer: a guide for clinicians

Front Immunol. 2024 Nov 20:15:1398109. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1398109. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) plays a key role to understand how tumors respond to prostate cancer (PC) therapies and potential mechanisms of resistance. Previous research has suggested that specific genomic aberrations, such as microsatellite instability (MSI) or CDK12 bi-allelic loss can allow PC patients more likely to respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) or other immune therapies. However, responses to these treatments remain highly variable even in selected patients. Thus, it is essential to obtain more information about tumor immune cells that infiltrate these tumors, and on their plasticity and interactions, in order to better understand the underlying biology to allow development of new therapeutic strategies. This review analyzes: 1) How interactions among immune cell populations and other cells infiltrating the tumor stroma can modulate the progression of PC, 2) How the standard therapies to treat PC (such as androgen deprivation therapy, new androgen-directed hormone therapy or chemotherapy) may influence the dynamic changes of the immunome and 3) What are the limitations in characterizing the immune landscape of the host´s response to tumors.

Keywords: biomarkers; immunome; immunophenotype; immunotherapy; prostate cancer.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Humans
  • Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors / therapeutic use
  • Immunotherapy / methods
  • Male
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic
  • Prostatic Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Prostatic Neoplasms* / immunology
  • Tumor Microenvironment* / drug effects
  • Tumor Microenvironment* / immunology

Substances

  • Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. NR-L team is supported by the CRIS Clinical Talent Programme 2022 from ‘Fundación CRIS contra el Cáncer’, Instituto Carlos III and Mutua Madrileña Foundation grants (PI21/01111, AP176822021).