Author(s)

Tianshu Pan

Corresponding Author

Tianshu Pan

ABSTRACT

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising clinical activity in various types of cancer and have improved the overall survival of patients in the past decades. However, the resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors remains a challenging problem today and has been studied in different aspects. This review gave an overview of the current status of the resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors in clinical treatments and the underlying mechanisms of drug resistance based on different stages of T cell immune cycle. Several possible solutions of the resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors towards the future development of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer treatment were also discussed.

KEYWORDS

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, drug resistance, cancer immunotherapy, ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab, CTLA-4, PD-1, PD-L1