Many mechanisms underlying an effective immunotherapy-induced antitumour response are transient and critically time dependent. This is equally true for several immunological events in the tumour microenvironment induced by other cancer treatments. Immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) has proven to be very effective in the treatment of some cancers, but unfortunately, with many cancer types, most patients do not experience a benefit. To improve outcomes, a multitude of clinical trials are testing combinations of ICT with various other treatment modalities. Ideally, those combination treatments should take time-dependent immunological events into account. Recent studies have started to map the dynamic cellular and molecular changes that occur during treatment with ICT, in the tumour and systemically. Here, we overlay the dynamic ICT response with the therapeutic response following surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapies. We propose that by combining treatments in a time-conscious manner, we may optimally exploit the interactions between the individual therapies.

免疫疗法诱导的有效抗肿瘤反应的许多机制是短暂的，并且严重依赖于时间。对于其他癌症治疗诱导的肿瘤微环境中的几种免疫事件，情况同样如此。免疫检查点疗法 （ICT） 已被证明在治疗某些癌症方面非常有效，但不幸的是，对于许多癌症类型，大多数患者并没有从中受益。为了改善结果，大量临床试验正在测试 ICT 与各种其他治疗方式的组合。理想情况下，这些联合治疗应考虑时间依赖性免疫事件。最近的研究已经开始绘制 ICT 治疗期间、肿瘤和全身发生的动态细胞和分子变化。在这里，我们将动态 ICT 反应与手术、放疗、化疗和靶向治疗后的治疗反应叠加在一起。我们建议，通过以时间意识的方式组合治疗，我们可以最佳地利用各个疗法之间的相互作用。