Introduction
NK (natural killer) cells can attack cancer cells even when T cells cannot. However, like T cells, NK cells have inhibitory (checkpoint) receptors that tumor cells exploit to silence them. Innate’s monalizumab blocks the NKG2A receptor, and represents a novel and much needed class of immunotherapy as currently approved PD-x (PD-1/PD-L1 axis) blockers are ineffective in the majority of cancer patients. In the words of two experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering: “NKG2A blockade plus PD-L1 blockade...is likely to be a continued focus of clinical development moving forward” (Hellmann & Snyder, Nature Medicine 2019