Accumulating evidence suggests that the clinical efficacy of selected anticancer drugs, including conventional chemotherapeutics as well as targeted
anticancer agents, originates (at least in part) from their ability to elicit a novel or reinstate a pre-existing
tumor-specific immune response. One of the mechanisms whereby
chemotherapy can stimulate the immune system to recognize and destroy malignant cells is commonly known as immunogenic cell death (ICD).
Cancer cells succumbing to ICD are de facto converted into an anticancer
vaccine and as such elicit an adaptive immune response. Several common chemotherapeutics share the ability of triggering ICD, as demonstrated in vaccination experiments relying on immunocompetent mice and syngeneic
cancer cells. A large number of ongoing clinical trials involve such ICD inducers, often (but not always) as they are part of the gold standard therapeutic approach against specific
neoplasms. In this Trial Watch, we summarize the latest advances on the use of
cyclophosphamide,
doxorubicin,
epirubicin,
oxaliplatin, and
mitoxantrone in
cancer patients, discussing high-impact studies that have been published during the last 13 months as well as clinical trials that have been initiated in the same period to assess the
antineoplastic profile of these immunogenic drugs as off-label therapeutic interventions.