Advancing precision oncology: Insights into the tumor microenvironment and immunotherapy outcomes

In recent years, a growing interest has emerged in disentangling the role of the complex interactions between diverse constituents of the tumor microenvironment in cancer immunotherapy settings. Although accumulating evidence indicates that the components in the tumor microenvironment play critical roles in the pathogenesis of cancer and, therefore, are considered attractive therapeutic targets, the effects of these components on response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in gastrointestinal cancer are not fully understood. Two noteworthy studies, conducted by Jia et al.3 and Chen et al.,4 provided intriguing insights into the complex interactions between tumor cells, microorganisms, immune cells, and other components in the tumor microenvironment, which could affect the responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors in gastrointestinal cancers.

Jia et al. examined the effect of Helicobacter pylori infection on responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the CD274 (programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 [PD-L1])/PDCD1 (programmed cell death 1 [PD-1]) axis in gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric, colorectal, and esophageal cancers.3 The authors investigated immune-related progression-free survival (PFS); i.e., duration from the initiation of immunotherapy to disease progression or death.