肿瘤免疫代表了癌症治疗的新途径。免疫检查点抑制剂已经成功地改善了几种肿瘤类型的结果。此外,目前,基于免疫细胞的治疗也引起了极大的关注。然而,这些治疗的临床疗效需要进一步改善。必须鉴定和阐明癌细胞逃避免疫反应的机制。肿瘤干细胞(CSC)在恶性肿瘤的多个方面发挥着重要作用。CSC可以在部分免疫受损的小鼠中引发肿瘤,而非CSC不能形成肿瘤,提示肿瘤启动是CSC的决定性功能。然而,非CSC也在更高度免疫受损的小鼠中引发肿瘤的事实表明,免疫逃避特性可能是CSC的更基本特征,而不是肿瘤启动特性。在这次审查中,我们总结了阐明CSCs如何逃避肿瘤免疫并创造免疫抑制环境的研究,重点是CSC特异性特征和功能.这些深刻的机制为新型肿瘤免疫疗法的发展提供了重要线索。
Tumor immunity represents a new avenue for cancer therapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have successfully improved outcomes in several tumor types. In addition, currently, immune cell-based therapy is also attracting significant attention. However, the clinical efficacy of these treatments requires further improvement. The mechanisms through which cancer cells escape the immune response must be identified and clarified. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a central role in multiple aspects of malignant tumors. CSCs can initiate tumors in partially immunocompromised mice, whereas non-CSCs fail to form tumors, suggesting that tumor initiation is a definitive function of CSCs. However, the fact that non-CSCs also initiate tumors in more highly immunocompromised mice suggests that the immune evasion property may be a more fundamental feature of CSCs rather than a tumor-initiating property. In this review, we summarize studies that have elucidated how CSCs evade tumor immunity and create an immunosuppressive milieu with a focus on CSC-specific characteristics and functions. These profound mechanisms provide important clues for the development of novel tumor immunotherapies.