About the book
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) such as anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 are major FDA-approved monoclonal antibodies that are utilized for many hard-to-treat cancers. Though these drugs have shown progression-free survival in many cancer types, the patient response to ICI is still low i.e. <40% indicating that several immune checkpoint molecules within the tumor microenvironment are playing a role in the respective treatment dynamics. Of these, Natural killer (NK) cells immune checkpoint molecules are emerging as new targets of therapy. Several NK receptors and immune checkpoints have been documented to play a role in immune escape and tumor progression. Therefore, identification and targeting of NK immune checkpoint molecules to restore cell cytotoxicity and induction of robust anti-tumor response is an area of cutting-edge research globally. On the other hand, the identification of NK markers as potential predictive and prognostic biomarkers can serve as an important tool for the stratification of patients on immunotherapy. Therefore, knowledge on NK cell-based immune checkpoints can pave the way for personalized cancer therapeutics.
