Prospects for immunotherapy as a novel therapeutic strategy against hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 1 A scheme of mechanisms of peptide vaccine therapy and immune checkpoint inhibition therapy. In peptide vaccine therapy, a injected tumor-associated peptides induce peptide-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte via antigen presenting cells, with resulting in an antitumor effect on cancer cells. Immune checkpoint inhibition therapy could result in anti-tumor effects by inhibiting the mechanism that negatively suppresses the immune response to tumor cells; anti-CTLA-4 antibody and anti-PD-1 antibody play a role of blocking the PD-1/PDL1 and CTLA4/B7 pathways, respectively. MHC: Major histocompatibility complex; CTLA-4: Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4; PD-1: Programmed cell death-1; CTL: Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte.