Active Immunotherapy of Cancer

Abstract

Clinical progress in the field of cancer immunotherapy has been slow for many years but within the last 5 years, breakthrough successes have brought immunotherapy to the forefront in cancer therapy. Promising results have been observed in a variety of cancers including solid tumors and hematological malignancies with adoptive cell therapy using natural host tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, host cells that have been genetically engineered with antitumor T-cell receptors or chimeric antigen receptors, immune checkpoint inhibitors like anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1 or PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies and oncolytic virus-based immunotherapy. However, most treatment modalities have shown limited efficacy with single therapy. The complex nature of cancer with intra- and inter-tumor antigen and genomic heterogeneity coupled with the immune suppressive microenvironment emphasizes the prospect of personalized targeted immunotherapy to manipulate the patient’s own immune system against cancer. For successful, robust and long-lasting cure of cancer, a multi-modal approach is essential, combining anti-tumor cell therapy with manipulation of multiple pathways in the tumor microenvironment to ameliorate tumor-induced immunosuppression.

• Cancer vaccine
• cell therapy
• immunotherapy

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health R01CA158318-01A1 and Roswell Park Cancer Institute-University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Ovarian Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence National Institutes of Health P50CA159981-01A1; the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.