[The role of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer].
The first attempts to use immunotherapy in patients were made in the late sixties. At this time great hopes were raised by the theory of immunosurveillance developed by Burnet and the promising results obtained against transplantable tumors in mice. However, these expectations were not fulfilled and the results of most randomized clinical trials were disappointing. Since 1985, a better understanding of the fundamental bases of tumor immunology and the results of new human studies has led to a reappraisal of immunotherapy. The data which have accumulated since demonstrate that in certain types of tumors immunotherapy can, in a small proportion of patients, control even disseminated cancers. These new developments give a renewed interest to the results which had been obtained with immunomodulators such as poly A-poly U or levamisole in the adjuvant setting.
Tubiana
M
M
Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France.
D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*
La place de l'immunothérapie dans le traitement des cancers.