IMR Press / FBL / Volume 12 / Issue 13 / DOI: 10.2741/2441

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Impact of androgen-deprivation therapy on the immune system: implications for combination therapy of prostate cancer
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1 Medical Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
2 Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
3 Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2007, 12(13), 4957–4971; https://doi.org/10.2741/2441
Published: 1 September 2007
Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in American men. Standard therapeutic strategies for systemic disease include androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and chemotherapy, both of which are palliative. However, there is a growing interest in the use of immunotherapy for prostate cancer. Evidence suggests that ADT may 1) enhance lymphopoiesis and thus potentially improve immune responses to vaccine, 2) renew thymopoiesis and thus reverse age-induced thymic involution, 3) augment B-cell development, and 4) mitigate tolerance to prostate cancer antigens. Although no vaccines are currently approved for prostate cancer, there are many promising agents under investigation. This review focuses on recent findings on immune regulation by androgens and immune-system regeneration with ADT, with emphasis on the rationale for the combination of ADT and vaccines in the clinical treatment of prostate cancer.

Keywords
Immune modulation
immunopotentiation
combination therapy
thymic stimulation
Review
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