Publications

Background: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy in some cases elicits striking patient responses, but its efficacy appears to be dependent on several incompletely understood factors. Most studies of ICB therapies in elderly patients have concluded that they received no reduced benefit or even increased benefit compared to the younger patients analyzed, despite the systemic age-related immune changes that might be expected to produce a less effective immune response, such as loss of the capacity to generate new naive T cells. To understand and apply these results, it is necessary to investigate the relationship of age and the immune tumor microenvironment.