AIRC IG 2019 Dissecting the tumor-immune microenvironment interactions in malignant pleural mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a lethal disease with poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Since the diagnosis is made mainly at advanced stage, chemotherapy is the only effective therapeutic strategy; however, disease-free and overall survival of these patients remains unacceptable, and new therapeutic options are urgently needed. Pre-clinical research in the field of MPM has exponentially increased in the last years with novel technological approaches that have enabled comprehensive gene and transcriptome insights. In parallel, new clinical trials, including immunotherapy, have been developed, whose results suggest that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) could be effective in MPM; nevertheless, reliable biomarkers able to determine which patients most likely will benefit from ICI is still lacking. Furthermore, several studies suggest the importance of not only genetic but also epigenetic regulation in MPM biology and microenvironment interactions.