Marques HS, de Brito BB, da Silva FAF, Santos MLC, de Souza JCB, Correia TML, Lopes LW, Neres NSM, Dórea RSDM, Dantas ACS, Morbeck LLB, Lima IS, de Almeida AA, Dias MRJ, de Melo FF. Relationship between Th17 immune response and cancer. World J Clin Oncol 2021; 12(10): 845-867 [PMID: 34733609 DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v12.i10.845]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Fabrício Freire de Melo, PhD, Professor, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Hormindo Barros 58, Quadra 17, Lote 58, Vitória da Conquista 45029-094, Bahia, Brazil. freiremelo@yahoo.com.br
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Oncol. Oct 24, 2021; 12(10): 845-867 Published online Oct 24, 2021. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v12.i10.845
Relationship between Th17 immune response and cancer
Hanna Santos Marques, Breno Bittencourt de Brito, Filipe Antônio França da Silva, Maria Luísa Cordeiro Santos, Júlio César Braga de Souza, Thiago Macêdo Lopes Correia, Luana Weber Lopes, Nayara Silva de Macêdo Neres, Rafael Santos Dantas Miranda Dórea, Anna Carolina Saúde Dantas, Lorena Lôbo Brito Morbeck, Iasmin Souza Lima, Amanda Alves de Almeida, Maiara Raulina de Jesus Dias, Fabrício Freire de Melo
Hanna Santos Marques, Campus Vitória da Conquista, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Vitória da Conquista 45083-900, Bahia, Brazil
Breno Bittencourt de Brito, Filipe Antônio França da Silva, Maria Luísa Cordeiro Santos, Júlio César Braga de Souza, Thiago Macêdo Lopes Correia, Luana Weber Lopes, Nayara Silva de Macêdo Neres, Rafael Santos Dantas Miranda Dórea, Anna Carolina Saúde Dantas, Lorena Lôbo Brito Morbeck, Iasmin Souza Lima, Amanda Alves de Almeida, Maiara Raulina de Jesus Dias, Fabrício Freire de Melo, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Vitória da Conquista 45029-094, Bahia, Brazil
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fabrício Freire de Melo, PhD, Professor, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Hormindo Barros 58, Quadra 17, Lote 58, Vitória da Conquista 45029-094, Bahia, Brazil. freiremelo@yahoo.com.br
Received: March 1, 2021 Peer-review started: March 1, 2021 First decision: July 6, 2021 Revised: July 21, 2021 Accepted: September 16, 2021 Article in press: September 16, 2021 Published online: October 24, 2021
Abstract
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and epidemiological projections predict growing cancer mortality rates in the next decades. Cancer has a close relationship with the immune system and, although Th17 cells are known to play roles in the immune response against microorganisms and in autoimmunity, studies have emphasized their roles in cancer pathogenesis. The Th17 immune response profile is involved in several types of cancer including urogenital, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers. This type of immune response exerts pro and antitumor functions through several mechanisms, depending on the context of each tumor, including the protumor angiogenesis and exhaustion of T cells and the antitumor recruitment of T cells and neutrophils to the tumor microenvironment. Among other factors, the paradoxical behavior of Th17 cells in this setting has been attributed to its plasticity potential, which makes possible their conversion into other types of T cells such as Th17/Treg and Th17/Th1 cells. Interleukin (IL)-17 stands out among Th17-related cytokines since it modulates pathways and interacts with other cell profiles in the tumor microenvironment, which allow Th17 cells to prevail in tumors. Moreover, the IL-17 is able to mediate pro and antitumor processes that influence the development and progression of various cancers, being associated with variable clinical outcomes. The understanding of the relationship between the Th17 immune response and cancer as well as the singularities of carcinogenic processes in each type of tumor is crucial for the identification of new therapeutic targets.
Core Tip: Cancer is still an important cause of death worldwide. Its development and progression are intimately related to the host immune response. In that context, the Th17 profile plays crucial roles in the pathogenesis of several cancers, promoting antitumor and protumor mechanisms. This study reviews the interactions occurring between Th17 responses and cancer.
