What is cancer immunotherapy?

Cancer immunotherapy is a broad term that covers a range of different specific and non-specific approaches and techniques, all of which involve stimulation of an effective response by the cancer patient’s own immune system.

The non-specific approaches involve stimulating the whole of the immune system, in the hope that this will also increase the immune response directed against the tumor cells.

The specific approaches can be divided in two categories:

• Passive specific immunotherapy uses monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). These antibodies bind to their target on cancer cells and in doing so block the chemical messages that make the cancer grow. Some therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab and rituximab, have become standard therapies for particular tumors [Acres et al., 2007, #18697].
• Active specific immunotherapy approaches rely on the patient's own immune system to generate an anti-cancer response. This is the basis of the new ASCI approach being developed by GSK. ASCI is designed to teach the immune system to recognize certain cancer-specific antigens and to attack them, in order to eventually eliminate the cancer altogether.