Limo Chen

TL;DR: A molecular link between epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and CD8+ TIL immunosuppression and cancer progression is demonstrated and ZEB1 promotes metastasis through a heretofore unappreciated cell non-autonomous mechanism, and subgroups of patients in whom malignant progression is driven by EMT activators may respond to treatment with PD-L1 antagonists.

TL;DR: This study shows that targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) proteins PARP and checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) significantly increased protein and surface expression of PD-L1 and supports a role of innate immune STING pathway in DDR-mediated antitumor immunity in SCLC.

TL;DR: The strong association between EMT status and an inflammatory tumor microenvironment with elevation of multiple targetable immune checkpoint molecules warrants further investigation of using EMT as a predictive biomarker for immune checkpoint blockade agents and other immunotherapies in NSCLC and possibly a broad range of other cancers.

TL;DR: It is observed that tumors treated with PD-1/PD-L1 blocking antibodies develop resistance through the upregulation of CD38, which is induced by all-trans retinoic acid and IFNβ in the tumor microenvironment, providing a novel mechanism of acquired resistance to immune checkpoint therapy.

TL;DR: This study identifies collagen and LAIR1 as potential markers for immunotherapy resistance and validates multiple promising therapeutic combinations.