Immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and adoptive cell therapy (ACT) have revolutionized cancer treatment, especially in patients whose disease was otherwise considered incurable. However, primary and secondary resistance to single agent immunotherapy often results in treatment failure, and only a minority of patients experience long-term benefits. This review article will discuss the relationship between cancer immune response and mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy. It will also provide a comprehensive review on the latest clinical status of combination therapies (e.g., immunotherapy with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapy), and discuss combination therapies approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. It will provide an overview of therapies targeting cytokines and other soluble immunoregulatory factors, ACT, virotherapy, innate immune modifiers and cancer vaccines, as well as combination therapies that exploit alternative immune targets and other therapeutic modalities. Finally, this review will include the stimulating insights from the 2020 China Immuno-Oncology Workshop co-organized by the Chinese American Hematologist and Oncologist Network (CAHON), the China National Medical Product Administration (NMPA) and Tsinghua University School of Medicine.

The human CD19 antigen is a 95 kd transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily. CD19 is classified as a type I transmembrane protein, with a single transmembrane domain, a cytoplasmic C-terminus, and extracellular N-terminus. CD19 is a biomarker for normal and neoplastic B cells, as well as follicular dendritic cells. CD19 is critically involved in establishing intrinsic B cell signaling thresholds through modulating both B cell receptor-dependent and independent signaling. CD19 functions as the dominant signaling component of a multimolecular complex on the surface of mature B cells, alongside complement receptor CD21, and the tetraspanin membrane protein CD81 (TAPA-1), as well as CD225. Through study of CD19 transgenic and knockout mouse models, it becomes clear that CD19 plays a critical role in maintaining the balance between humoral, antigen-induced response and tolerance induction. This review also summarized latest clinical development of CD19 antibodies, anti-B4-bR (an immunotoxin conjugate), blinatumomab (BiTE), and SAR3419 (huB4-DM4), a novel antibody-drug conjugate.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) can regulate expression of tumor suppressor genes and activities of transcriptional factors involved in both cancer initiation and progression through alteration of either DNA or the structural components of chromatin. Recently, the role of gene repression through modulation such as acetylation in cancer patients has been clinically validated with several inhibitors of HDACs. One of the HDAC inhibitors, vorinostat, has been approved by FDA for treating cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) for patients with progressive, persistent, or recurrent disease on or following two systemic therapies. Other inhibitors, for example, FK228, PXD101, PCI-24781, ITF2357, MGCD0103, MS-275, valproic acid and LBH589 have also demonstrated therapeutic potential as monotherapy or combination with other anti-tumor drugs in CTCL and other malignancies. At least 80 clinical trials are underway, testing more than eleven different HDAC inhibitory agents including both hematological and solid malignancies. This review focuses on recent development in clinical trials testing HDAC inhibitors as anti-tumor agents.

Currently, the two approved T cell products with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) are from autologous T cells. These CAR T cells approved for clinical use must be generated on a custom-made basis. This case-by-case autologous T cell production platform remains a significant limiting factor for large-scale clinical application due to the costly and lengthy production process. There is also an inherent risk of production failure. The individualized, custom-made autologous CAR T cell production process also posts constriction on the wide application on diverse tumor types. Therefore, universal allogeneic T cells are needed for the preparation of universal CAR T cells that can serve as the “off-the-shelf” ready-to-use therapeutic agents for large-scale clinical applications. Genome-editing technologies including ZFN (zinc finger nuclease), TALEN (transcription activator-like effector nuclease), and CRISPR-Cas9 are being used to generate the universal third-party T cells. In addition, split, universal, and programmable (SUPRA) CARs are being developed to enhance the flexibility and controllability of CAR T cells. The engineered universal T cells and universal CARs are paving the road for a totally new generation of CAR T cells capable of targeting multiple antigens and/ or being delivered to multiple recipients without re-editing of T cells. This may escalate to a new wave of revolution in cancer immunotherapy. This review summarized the latest advances on designs and development of universal CARs, universal T cells, and clinical application of universal CAR T cells.

Background: Liposomal formulations of anthracyclines appear to have favorable toxicity profile when compared with conventional anthracyclines in elderly, high risk cardiac patients and patients with prior use of anthracyclines. Randomized controlled trials have evaluated the efficacy and safety profile of liposomal formulations with conventional anthracyclines. Our aim is to evaluate the adverse effects and quantify the relative safety profile of the liposomal and conventional anthracyclines through meta-analysis of the published randomized trials. Methods: We conducted a broad search strategy of major electronic databases. We performed a meta- analysis of adverse effects on randomized controlled trials comparing liposomal formulation and conventional anthracyclines on different tumors. The primary outcome was the adverse effects including congestive heart failure (CHF), hematological toxicity, palmar-plantar erythrodysthesias (PPE), alopecia, nausea and vomiting. The odds ratios of the adverse effects were calculated separately and the overall odds ratio of the pooled data was calculated. Results: We identified nine randomized controlled trials comparing liposomal formulations and conventional anthracyclines. The study included 2220 patients, of which1112 patients were treated with liposomal formulations and 1108 were treated with conventional anthracyclines. We found that the liposomal formulations have low incidence of CHF(OR 0.34, 95% CI, 0.24–0.47), alopecia (OR 0.0.25, 95% CI, 0.0.10-0.62), neutropenia (OR 0.62, 95% CI, 0.45- 0.85),(OR 0.89, 95% CI, 0.71-1.125), and thrombocytopenia (OR 0.87, 95% CI, 0.61-1.25). The incidence of PPE was similar in both arms (OR 1.08, 95% CI, 0.11- 10.30). Conclusions: Liposomal doxorubicin and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin demonstrated favorable toxicity profiles with better cardiac safety and less myelosuppression, alopecia, nausea and vomiting compared with the conventional anthracyclines. The better therapeutic index of liposomal anthracyclines without compromising the efficacy makes it a favorable choice over conventional anthracyclines in elderly patients, patients with risk factors for cardiac disease and patients with prior use of anthracyclines.