TUMOR IMMUNOLOGY 

Minerva Biotecnologica 1999 December;11(4):319-24

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Clinical trials of immunotherapy: active immunotherapy or therapeutic vaccination

Maio M. ¹, Parmiani G. ²

¹ Advanced Immunotherapy Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Aviano, Italy; ² Unit of Immunotherapy of Human Tumors, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan (Italy)

During the ­recent ­years, new infor­ma­tion ­obtained ­from ­basic immu­nol­o­gy and ­from the use of molec­u­lar tech­niques has ­advanced our under­stand­ing of mech­a­nism of induc­tion of ­immune ­response and ­caused a new ­wave of stud­ies of ­active immu­no­ther­a­py of can­cer ­both at pre-clin­i­cal and clin­cal lev­el. Here we sum­mar­ize ­these new find­ings and illus­trate the ratio­nale ­that has gen­er­at­ed a flur­ry of new approach­es ­which are ­being trans­lat­ed ­into clin­i­cal pro­to­cols. Though ­many prob­lems ­have ­still to be ­solved, the avail­able stud­ies, ­which are brief­ly ­described, sug­gest ­that a clin­i­cal ben­e­fit ­could be ­obtained in met­a­stat­ic can­cer ­patients ­vac­ci­nat­ed ­with appro­priate ­tumor anti­gens in cer­tain clin­i­cal con­di­tions. Altogether, it ­appears ­that can­cer vac­cines can ­become a val­u­able addi­tion­al modal­ity ­against can­cer.