In tumour therapy, immunogenic cell death (ICD) is an important component to induce a cytotoxic tumour-specific immune reaction against the tumour cells or tumour cell growth. This reaction can inhibit tumour growth.
There are 80 centres worldwide involved in the consensus guidelines for the definition, recognition and interpretation of immunogenic cell death. Within this framework, the IOZK working group contributes to support through oncolytic virotherapy and loco-regional modulated electrohyperthermia.
The past 30 years have shown that we can target and manipulate the immune system against cancer cells. There are now anti-tumour agents and treatments that result in immune stimulation - one example is a virus that can infect and destroy a cancer cell. We have found over time that in addition to this oncolytic activity of the virus, the subsequent immunisation that occurs due to the killing of the tumour cells is equally important. This process is called immunogenic cell death (ICD).
The particular importance of immunogenic cell death is well known, but in reality it occurs very rarely. If a cell dies in the body, the immune system usually does not care; this is a good thing, because otherwise the body would explode in a minute if the immune system reacted immediately to every dying cell. In contrast, immunogenic cell death is a type of cell death in which the immune system is alerted and an immune response is triggered as a consequence. An anti-tumour strategy is therefore to specifically induce immunogenic cell death by infecting the tumour cells with an oncological virus.
Consensus guidelines for the definition, detection and interpretation of immunogenic cell death Lorenzo Galluzzi, Ilio Vitale, Sarah Warren, Sandy Adjemian, Patrizia Agostinis, Aitziber Buqué Martinez, Timothy A Chan, George Coukos, Sandra Demaria, Eric Deutsch, Dobrin Draganov, Richard L Edelson, Silvia C Formenti, Jitka Fucikova, Lucia Gabriele, Udo S Gaipl, Sofia R Gameiro, Abhishek D Garg, Encouse Golden, Jian Han, Kevin J Harrington, Akseli Hemminki, James W Hodge, Dewan Md Sakib Hossain, Tim Illidge, Michael Karin, Howard L Kaufman, Oliver Kepp,Guido Kroemer, Juan Jose Lasarte, Sherene Loi, Michael T Lotze, Gwenola Manic, Taha Merghoub, Alan A Melcher, Karen L Mossman, Felipe Prosper, Oystein Rekdal, Maria Rescigno, Chiara Riganti, Antonella Sistigu, Mark J Smyth, Radek Spisek, John Stagg, Bryan E Strauss, Daolin Tang, Kazuki Tatsuno, Stefaan van Gool, Peter Vandenabeele, Takahiro Yamazaki, Dmitriy Zamarin, Laurence Zitvogel, Alessandra Cesano, Francesco Marincola 13.01.2020 – Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (BMJ)