Live or Let Die: T Cell Survival in Cancer Immunotherapy

Combination immune checkpoint blockade targeting CTLA-4 and PD-1 is thought to reinvigorate exhausted T cells better than monotherapies. In this issue of Immunity, Pai et al. (2019) Pai C.-C.S. Huang H.T. Lu X. Simons D.M. Park C. Chang A. Tamaki W. Liu W. Roybal K.T. Seagal J. et al. Clonal deletion of tumor-specific T cells by interferon-γ confers therapeutic resistance to combination immune checkpoint blockade. Immunity. 2019; 50 ( this issue) : 477-492 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar show that, in the setting of low tumor burden, this combination regimen promotes interferon-γ-dependent T cell hyperactivation and death and thus favors tumor progression