title: Cancer immunotherapy: the beginning of the end of cancer?
abstract: These are exciting times for cancer immunotherapy. After many years of disappointing results, the tide has finally changed and immunotherapy has become a clinically validated treatment for many cancers. Immunotherapeutic strategies include cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, adoptive transfer of ex vivo activated T and natural killer cells, and administration of antibodies or recombinant proteins that either costimulate cells or block the so-called immune checkpoint pathways. The recent success of several immunotherapeutic regimes, such as monoclonal antibody blocking of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), has boosted the development of this treatment modality, with the consequence that new therapeutic targets and schemes which combine various immunological agents are now being described at a breathtaking pace. In this review, we outline some of the main strategies in cancer immunotherapy (cancer vaccines, adoptive cellular immunotherapy, immune checkpoint blockade, and oncolytic viruses) and discuss the progress in the synergistic design of immune-targeting combination therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farkona
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.|Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Eleftherios P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Diamandis
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. ivan.blasutig@uhn.on.ca.|Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada. ivan.blasutig@uhn.on.ca.|Clinical Biochemistry, Toronto General Hospital, 200 Elizabet St. Rm 3EB-365, Toronto, ON, M5G2C4, Canada. ivan.blasutig@uhn.on.ca.
authors.forename: Ivan M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Blasutig
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen; D019496:Cancer Vaccines
keywords: Adoptive cellular therapy; Cancer; Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4; Immune checkpoint blockade; Immunotherapy; Programmed cell death protein 1; T cells