title: [History of and novel developments in cancer immunotherapy - introduction to the special issue].
abstract: Over the last 50 years, development in the field of cancer immunotherapy has been fluctuating, ranging from exciting expectations to disappointing clinical outcomes. Now, the time has come again, for cancer immunotherapy. Since 2010, new immunotherapeutics have been approved one after another in the United States of America and other countries. Thus, immunotherapy has definitely been recognized as the fourth therapy for cancer after surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Under this establishment, there has been progress not only in the fundamental understanding of the immune system but also in the design of scientific clinical trials, in which delayed-type tumor responses and survival benefits with less tumor shrinkage are used as indicators. The next 3 papers provide exciting insights on novel cancer immunotherapy as an innovative treatment modality for cancer.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Clinical Oncology, Kawasaki Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*