The landscape of therapeutic options for patients with cancer has changed dramatically in the last decade. Advances in understanding the role of driver mutations in mediating tumor growth and progression, coupled with the development of molecular inhibitors for defined mutations, have given rise to precision oncology. Parallel to this development, significant progress in tumor immunotherapy has resulted in several new strategies for cancer therapy. Effective tumor immunotherapy strategies are designed to promote the cancer-immunity cycle and block the immune-suppressive effects of established tumors. Approaches have included checkpoint inhibitors that prevent T-cell unresponsiveness, toll-like receptor agonists, oncolytic viruses that induce necrotic tumor cell death and trigger systemic antitumor immunity and adoptive transfer of native and genetically engineered T cells that are designed to recognize specific tumor antigens through the T-cell receptor. The practicing oncologists and scientists will need to understand these developments intimately if they wish to take advantage of these therapeutic options.

In this special issue of Endocrine-Related Cancer, we intentionally highlight some of the unique perspectives related to the use of cancer immunotherapy in endocrine-related cancers. Lucas Leite Cunha and …