ABSTRACT
Various factors regulate the balance between immunity and tolerance against intraocular tumors. Investigating these ongoing immune processes in animals with intraocular tumors teaches us about the basic strategies cancer uses to escape tumor elimination, since the eye, an immune-privileged site, is especially hostile to any form of aggressive antitumor immunity. Understanding these fundamental immunological processes will help us to better understand how to develop safe and efficient immune intervention strategies against uveal melanoma and its metastases.
Intraocular Tumors and Immune Privilege Hypothetically ocular immune privilege would favor the development of intraocular tumors; however, the contrary is true. Intraocular tumors do not appear more frequently than malignancies arising in conventional body sites. In experimental animal models, ocular immune privilege allows the growth of tumor cells that are not growing elsewhere in the body. In the following paragraphs some aspects of general tumor immunology together with their significance for intraocular tumor growth are discussed. Furthermore, findings in immune responses against intraocular tumors from human and experimental animal studies together with current and future immune intervention strategies against uveal melanoma and their metastases will be elucidated.
