Immunotherapy: on the edge between experimental and clinical oncology.
Cancer immunotherapy is still largely confined to the laboratory bench and experimental animal models. Yet the field is rapidly moving forward and some immunological tools are now entering into clinical use. The first and perhaps best example of such progress is given by bioengineered humanized monoclonal antibodies of which some have been already approved for therapy in B-cell lymphoma and breast cancer. Unexpectedly, another remarkable form of immunotherapy has turned out to derive from T-cell adoptive therapy associated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Its benefits render such an approach the first choice therapy for a large number of hematological malignancies and it is now being adapted also for treatment of advanced solid tumors. Finally, harnessing the immune system against the autologous tumor remains the most ambitious but still distant design for immunotherapy. Recent technical advances and a better understanding of the immune system in cancer patients should concur in defining the best strategy for active immunotherapy in clinical oncology.
Medical Oncology Division, IRCCS Fondazione S. Maugeri, Clinica del Lavoro e della Riabilitazione, Istituto Scientifico di Pavia, Italy. ffagnoni@fsm.it
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Robustelli della Cuna
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D016233:Immunotherapy, Active; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000628:therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D019496:Cancer Vaccines