Interferon α (IFNα) is a cytokine that mediates diverse immune responses to tumours. It is the oldest immune-based oncologic drug and has been widely used to treat various malignancies in humans. Yet, the use of IFNα in cancer therapy has only resulted in limited success and even led to worse clinical outcomes under certain instances. The emergence of the cancer immunoediting concept-which implicates the host immune system in promoting tumour growth-recapitulates the need to evaluate the immune functions of IFNα. This review proposes that IFNα has dual opposing roles in cancer development based on the mutational status of its signalling components, which determines the expression of anti- or pro-tumorigenic IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). This duality may translate into new applications of IFNα in cancer immunotherapy.

中文翻译：

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干扰素α在癌症免疫编辑中的作用：从消除到逃逸。

干扰素α（IFNα）是一种介导针对肿瘤的多种免疫反应的细胞因子。它是最古老的基于免疫的肿瘤药物，已被广泛用于治疗人类的各种恶性肿瘤。然而，在某些情况下，在癌症治疗中使用IFNα仅能获得有限的成功，甚至导致更差的临床结果。癌症免疫编辑概念的出现-牵涉宿主免疫系统促进肿瘤生长-概括了评估IFNα免疫功能的需要。这篇综述提出，IFNα在其信号成分的突变状态基础上在癌症发展中具有双重相反的作用，这决定了抗肿瘤或促肿瘤源性IFN刺激基因（ISG）的表达。这种双重性可能会转化为IFNα在癌症免疫治疗中的新应用。