Unexpected Benefits of Aging for Favorable Responses to PD-1 Blockade in Melanoma?

Immunosenescence might be expected to reduce the efficacy of checkpoint blockade, which depends on a functionally intact immune system. However, it seems that older patients with melanoma may respond better to anti-PD-1 treatment than younger patients, possibly due to their having fewer regulatory T cells relative to CD8+ T cells within tumor deposits. Clin Cancer Res; 24(21); 5193-4. ©2018 AACR See related article by Kugel et al., p. 5347. ©2018 American Association for Cancer Research.