The Two Faces of Interferon-γ in cancer

摘要

Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) is a cytokine whose biological activity is conventionally associated with cytostatic/cytotoxic and antitumor mechanisms during cell-mediated adaptive immune response. It has been used clinically to treat a variety of malignancies, albeit with mixed results and side effects that can be severe. Despite ample evidence implicating a role for IFN-γ in tumor immune surveillance, there has been a steady flow of reports suggesting that it may also have pro-tumorigenic effects under certain circumstances. We propose that in fact IFN-γ treatment is a double-edged sword whose anti- and pro-tumorigenic activities are dependent on the cellular, microenvironmental, and/or molecular context. As such, inhibition of the IFN-γ/IFNγR pathway may prove to be a viable new therapeutic target for a subset of malignancies.