Immunotherapy: a glimmer of hope for metastatic prostate cancer

Prostate cancer was the first cancer in which immunotherapy vaccine was approved by FDA in 2010 named Sipuleucel-T. No new immunotherapies have been approved since, as phase 3 trials didn’t show any improvement in overall survival (OS) especially with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Currently tremendous amount of research is going on, in studying microenvironment of prostate cancer, finding new targets and biomarkers, and trying different combination therapies. Some of the new targets explored are VISTA and PARP inhibitors. Combination therapies have shown promising results in early phase trials and likely in near future we will have an effective immunotherapy for advanced prostate cancer. In this article we will review the current data and future of immunotherapy in prostate cancer.