Intratumoral anti-CTLA-4 therapy: enhancing efficacy while avoiding toxicity

Abstract

Systemic administration of the checkpoint blockade antibody anti-CTLA4 results in severe autoimmune toxicity, limiting its clinical efficacy. Fransen and colleagues show here that peritumoral delivery of low doses of this immunomodulatory drug can trigger a systemic antitumor immune response while preventing the toxicity against other organs.

Figures

Figure

Graphical summary of the main results from Fransen et al (1), Marabelle et al (2) and Selby et al (3) on the effect of anti-CTLA-4 therapy. Intra or peri-tumoral injections of anti-CTLA-4 trigger a CD4 and CD8 mediated anti-tumor immune response able to eradicate tumor cells at a distant site. The use of low doses of anti-CTLA-4 avoids the auto-immune toxicity of a systemic high dose delivery.