Cancer immunotherapy has become the standard of care for multiple tumor types at diverse disease stages, providing better survival and reduced disease recurrences ( Sharma et al., 2011). The enhanced response against cancer is achieved by improving the immune cell recruitment into the tumor microenvironment and/or the recognition and destruction of cancer cells by immune cells ( Sharma and Allison, 2015). Immuno-oncology (IO) is the study of the immune system functionality against cancer and the development of treatments that improve the ability of the immune system to fight the disease ( Guo et al., 2019). We will summarize the contributions of this technology to the advancement of research in immunotherapy studies and discuss best practices to obtain reliable, robust and reproducible FSFC results.Īccording to the World Health Organization, Cancer is the second leading cause of disease burden and mortality in the world, and strategies for cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are still a global effort ( Mattiuzzi and Lippi, 2019).
#NIH FONT GEORGIA FULL#
FSFC captures the full emission spectrum of fluorescent molecules using arrays of highly sensitive light detectors, and to date has enabled characterization of 40 parameters in a single sample. Most recently, the need to evaluate simultaneously more features in each cell has pushed the field to implement more powerful adaptations beyond conventional flow cytometry, including Full Spectrum Flow Cytometry (FSFC). This technology has been fundamental in diagnosis, treatment and translational research in cancer clinical trials. Flow cytometry stands as one of the most successful single-cell analytical tools used to characterize immune cell phenotypes to monitor solid tumors, hematological malignancies, minimal residual disease or metastatic progression.
To achieve these goals, powerful research tools are needed.
The identification and validation of biomarkers for routine clinical use is not only critical to monitor disease or treatment progression, but also to personalize and develop new therapies. Currently, two of the most important goals in cancer immunotherapy are to understand the mechanisms resulting in failure to checkpoint blockade and to identify predictive immunological biomarkers that correlate to treatment response, disease progression or adverse effects.
The Nobel Prize-deserving concept of blocking inhibitory pathways in T cells, to unleash their anti-tumoral capacity, became one of the pillars of cancer treatment in the last decade and has resulted in durable clinical responses for multiple cancer types.
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