Adoptive immunotherapy combined with FP treatment for head and neck cancer: An in vitro study.

Abstract

FP treatment, which combines 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (CDDP) chemotherapy, is widely used for treatment of advanced head and neck cancer (HNC). It has been suggested that these drugs cause immunomodulation in the cancer microenvironment, for example, downregulation of immunosuppressive cells such as regulatory T-cells (Tregs) and myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSCs), activating dendritic cells (DCs), and upregulation of tumor antigens and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules in cancer cells leads to enhancement of cancer immunity, which is important in cancer treatment, as well as providing a direct killing effect. Therefore, development of chemoimmunotherapy by combining FP treatment with immunotherapy for HNC has become a recent challenging issue. However, the direct effects of these drugs on immune effector cells, especially cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), are not well known. We have investigated the direct actions of these drugs on CTL functions in in vitro experiments using cytomegalovirus (CMV) pp65 antigen-specific CTLs (CMVpp65-CTLs) and oral squamous cell cancer (OSCC) cell lines overexpressing CMVpp65 antigen as target cells. Although CDDP partially inhibited proliferation of memory CMVpp65-CTL in peripheral blood, the proliferation was not inhibited by 5-FU. Cytotoxicity and the IFN-γ release response of the CMVpp65-CTLs were not inhibited by these drugs, and it is important to note that these drugs, especially 5-FU, sensitized OSCC cell lines to CMVpp65-CTL. Furthermore, CMVpp65-CTL cytotoxicity to CDDP-resistant OSCC cells, HSC-3/CDDP-R1, was the same as the cytotoxicity to the parental cells. Thus, we suggest that combined immunotherapy with FP treatment is an effective novel HNC treatment.

• Authors: Mayako Nishio-Nagai, Susumu Suzuki, Kazuhiro Yoshikawa, Ryuzo Ueda, Yoshiaki Kazaoka
• Journal: International journal of oncology (Int J Oncol) Vol. 51 Issue 5 Pg. 1471-1481 (Nov 2017) ISSN: 1791-2423 [Electronic] Greece
• PMID: 29048671 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Antigens, Neoplasm
• IFNG protein, human
• Phosphoproteins
• Viral Matrix Proteins
• cytomegalovirus matrix protein 65kDa
• Tegafur
• Uracil
• Interferon-gamma
• Cisplatin
• Fluorouracil

Topics

• Antigens, Neoplasm (drug effects, immunology)
• Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols (administration & dosage, adverse effects)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Cell Proliferation (drug effects)
• Cisplatin (administration & dosage, adverse effects)
• Combined Modality Therapy
• Cytomegalovirus (genetics)
• Drug Resistance, Neoplasm (genetics, immunology)
• Fluorouracil (administration & dosage, adverse effects)
• Head and Neck Neoplasms (immunology, pathology, therapy)
• Humans
• Immunotherapy, Adoptive
• Interferon-gamma (genetics, immunology)
• Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells
• Neoplasm Staging
• Phosphoproteins (genetics)
• T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic (drug effects, immunology)
• T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory (drug effects, immunology)
• Tegafur (administration & dosage, adverse effects)
• Tumor Microenvironment (drug effects, immunology)
• Uracil (administration & dosage, adverse effects)
• Viral Matrix Proteins (genetics)