Immunotherapy in Immunosuppressed Patients

Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors enables the immune system to revert the immune-escape enacted by cancer cells and has revolutionized cancer treatments, improving the prognosis of cancer patients across several disease histotypes. However, since these drugs require effector cells to exert the anticancer effect, responses in immunosuppressed patients might be hampered. Additionally, immunosuppressed patients are excluded by clinical trials, and the clinicians often need to rely on anectodical reports for guidance in this vulnerable subgroup of cancer patients. To help the decision process of the oncologists treating immunosuppressed cancer patient, here we propose a systematic review of the current evidence in specific subgroups of immunosuppressive conditions.