Revisiting immunogenic cell death to improve treatment response in cancer

Abstract Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is an immune priming form of cell death that occurs following exposure to physical or microbial insults. Unlike apoptosis, ICD events trigger the release of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that facilitate a variable magnitude of innate immune responses leading to the priming of downstream adaptive immune activation. Indeed, the immunogenicity induced by various cell death causing stimuli dictates favorable or unfavorable immune responses at the site of inflammation. With a better understanding of the relationship between an ICD inducer and the induced effect these stimuli have on the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME), we discuss how ICD responses can create either an acute/chronic pro-inflammatory immune state and/or an anticancer immune response. This chapter will outline the interaction between dying cancer cells and host immune cells and the influence this interaction has on the progression and treatment of cancer. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of ICD-associated mechanisms, and its therapeutic exploitation to provide long-lasting anticancer responses.