Immunogenic Cell Death: Unlocking New Frontiers in Cancer Immunotherapy

ABSTRACT

When cells are unable to maintain their proper functions, they go into “Cell Death”, either “Accidental” which is uncontrolled, or “Regulated” which is programmed and involves signaling cascades of specific molecules. Any perturbation of the cell death pathways is correlated with a large range of diseases including cancers. These irregularities in cell death mechanisms could however be used as therapeutic targets for a wide range of tumor indications. One of these strategies describes as “Cancer Immunotherapy” is using the power of the immune system to destroy cancer cells. A specific branch of Immunotherapy is “Immunogenic Cell Death” (ICD) which enhances tumor immunogenicity through regulated cancer cell death and triggers tumor‐specific adaptive immune responses. A better understanding of ICD is critical for getting better anti‐cancer modalities. This review focuses on ICD mechanisms, highlights the capacity of drugs to induce ICD, and discusses the importance of combining “ICD‐inducers” with other strategies to enhance their efficiency.