The therapeutic landscape of several genitourinary malignancies has been revolutionized by the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs); however, the utility of immunotherapies in prostate cancer has been limited, partly due to the immunologically "cold" tumor terrain of prostate cancer. As of today, pembrolizumab is the only immune checkpoint inhibitor approved for the treatment of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) in a select group of patients with high microsatellite instability (MSI-H), deficient mismatch repair (dMMR), or high tumor mutational burden (TMB). Looking ahead, several combinatorial approaches with ICIs involving radioligands, radiotherapy, PARP inhibitors, interleukin inhibitors, and cancer vaccines are exploring a potential synergistic effect. Furthermore, B7-H3 is an alternative checkpoint that may hold promise in adding to the treatment landscape of mCRPC. This review aims to summarize previous monotherapy and combination therapy trials of ICIs as well as novel immunotherapy combination therapeutic strategies and treatment targets in mCRPC.
Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.). 2023 Apr 19*** epublish ***
Sree M Lanka, Nicholas A Zorko, Emmanuel S Antonarakis, Pedro C Barata
Deming Department of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA., Department of Hematology and Oncology, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA., Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.