T-cell-stimulating cytokines have shown promise as monotherapies or in combination with other therapeutic modalities for immunotherapy of cancer. However, their efficacy is limited due to their short half-life, pleiotropic roles, and induction of severe toxicity even at therapeutic doses. To overcome these major therapeutic barriers, cytokine-based products are being further developed to improve their therapeutic index. These approaches include manipulating their activity to preferentially bind to effector immune cells rather than immune-suppressive cells, prolonging their half-life in vivo and modifying them to target tumors. This review focuses on IL-2, IL-15, and IL-10, which have potent effects on immune cells that mediate effective antitumor responses. We will summarize the recent progress of these cytokines in both preclinical studies and selective clinical applications and will discuss our perspectives on the development of new strategies to potentiate cytokine-based immunotherapy.

T细胞刺激性细胞因子已显示出有望作为单一疗法或与其他疗法结合用于癌症免疫疗法的方法。然而，由于它们的半衰期短，多效作用以及即使在治疗剂量下也引起严重毒性，因此它们的功效受到限制。为了克服这些主要的治疗障碍，正在进一步开发基于细胞因子的产品以改善其治疗指数。这些方法包括操纵其优先结合效应免疫细胞而不是免疫抑制细胞的活性，延长其在体内的半衰期并修饰它们以靶向肿瘤。这篇综述集中于IL-2，IL-15和IL-10，它们对介导有效抗肿瘤反应的免疫细胞具有有效作用。