New frontiers in cell-based immunotherapy of cancer

Abstract

Background: Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death. Over the past decade, discovery of tumor antigens, as well as new findings in basic immunology, have led to novel opportunities for developing active immunotherapeutical approaches for prevention and treatment of cancer. Objective/methods: This is a review of the literature and patents on the therapeutic potential of immune-based cell cancer therapies. Results/conclusion: In this article, we discuss the different approaches at present used for immune-based cell cancer therapies, and the results obtained both in preclinical models and in clinical trials of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.

Keywords::

• adoptive therapy
• cancer
• dendritic cell
• engineered T cells
• immunotherapy
• natural killer cells
• T cells
• vaccination

Acknowledgements

We thank M Benagiano for critical reading of the manuscript and C Della Bella for the artworks.

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