Basic Overview of Current Immunotherapy Approaches in Cancer

Abstract

Recent success of immunotherapy strategies such as immune checkpoint blockade in several malignancies has established the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Cancers use multiple mechanisms to co-opt the host-tumor immune interactions, leading to immune evasion. Our understanding of the host-tumor interactions has evolved over the past few years and led to various promising new therapeutic strategies. This article will focus on the basic principles of immunotherapy, novel pathways/agents, and combinatorial immunotherapies.KEY POINTSNovel anticancer immunotherapies have shown remarkable clinical activity across several tumor types. Tumors evade the immune system through multiple regulatory pathways and cells. Immune evasive pathways appear to be nonredundant and hence the possibility of enhancing endogenous immune responses by therapeutic blockade of these pathways. Majority of solid tumors do not mount an adequate endogenous immune response, hence response from immune checkpoint inhibitors is modest. Understanding the mechanisms of epitope loss or suppression of an endogenous immune response could uncover novel therapeutic options.