Senescence of the immune system: a new target for immune-enhancing nutrition in patients with cancer and receiving immunotherapy

Cancer is an age-associated disease. Although it is acknowledged that cancer development and progression start years before clinical diagnosis, the majority of patients with cancer are older adults. Different disease-modifying therapies are now available to treat and control cancer growth. Immunotherapy, based on the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, is a novel approach whose use is progressively implemented in many types of cancers. Unfortunately, even after careful molecular profiling of cancer cells’ immunogenicity, the response rate to immunotherapy is frequently below 35%. Immune function declines with age and immune senescence is a key factor in reducing the clinical response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Consequently, mitigation of the accelerated aging of patients with cancer using senolytic agents, or caloric restriction mimetics, or supervised short periods of caloric restriction is a feasible approach to be further tested in pre-clinical models and human trials to increase the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors and favor a better control of tumor growth.