Tobacco smoke induces changes in IL-1 family in bronchial epithelial cells obtained from asthmatic individuals

Immune Resistance in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer worldwide, imposing grievous challenges for patients and clinicians. The incidence of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), the main histologic subtype of lung cancer, is still increasing in current-, ex-, and even non-smokers, whereas its five-year survival rate is approximately 15% as the vast majority of patients usually present with advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. The generation of novel drugs targeting key disease driver mutations has created optimism for the treatment of LUAD, but, as these mutations are not universal, this therapeutic line benefits only a subset of patients. More recently, the advent of targeted immunotherapies and their documented clinical efficacy in many different cancers, including LUAD, have started to change cancer management. Immunotherapies have been developed in order to overcome the cancer's ability to develop mechanisms of immune resistance, i.e., to adapt to and evade the host inflammatory and immune responses. Identifying a cancer's immune resistance mechanisms will likely advance the development of personalized immunotherapies. This review examines the key pathways of immune resistance at play in LUAD and explores therapeutic strategies which can unleash potent antitumor immune responses and significantly improve therapeutic efficacy, quality of life, and survival in LUAD.

A review of canakinumab and its therapeutic potential for non-small cell lung cancer

Inflammation is essential for our innate and adaptive immunity, but chronic inflammation can also be detrimental, playing a role in tumor development and subversion of host immunity. A multitude of proteins and cytokines are involved in chronic inflammation; interleukin-1β, in particular, has been recognized as a critical pro-inflammatory cytokine that can trigger a cascade of inflammatory mediators, promoting angiogenesis, tumor invasiveness, and metastasis. The inhibition of interleukin-1β with the antibody canakinumab was recently highlighted in a large-scale trial studying the effects of the inflammatory modulating antibody in heart disease. In this study, a marked decrease in the incidence of lung cancer (a 67% relative risk reduction) was observed in a high-risk population. Although a number of preclinical studies have demonstrated that canakinumab inhibits interleukin-1β and reduces inflammation, the question remains whether these actions positively affect both cancer incidence and recurrence. This review will summarize the role of inflammation in cancer propagation and development, discuss the biological rationale for targeting interleukin-1β in lung cancer, advocate for further investigation of the anti-inflammatory antibody canakinumab as a new attractive mechanism for future lung cancer therapy, and discuss future and ongoing trials.