Figure 5.

The combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy, with the indicated cytotoxic drugs, increases tumor sensitivity to PD-L1-targeted mAbs. Chemotherapy induces upregulation of PD-L1 on cancer cells, facilitates infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells and NK cells, increases maturation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) including dendritic cells (DCs) and tumor macrophages, and in some cases promotes activity of MDSCs. Via this mechanism, the drugs restore an immune-reactive tumor microenvironment and significantly promote the sensitivity of the tumor to PD-L1-targeted mAbs.