Current developments of immunotherapy in the clinic

The clinical application of immunotherapy for cancer is rapidly moving forward in multiple areas, including the adoptive transfer of anti-tumor-reactive T cells and the use of ‘therapeutic’ vaccines. Recently, both clinical and immunological endpoints have shown improvement. Novel strategies designed in the laboratory and proven in preclinical animal tumor models are now entering the clinic, with the intent of enhancing current therapeutic efficacy. These novel strategies involve breaking tolerance to tumor self-antigens by inhibiting regulatory cells, boosting T-cell co-stimulation and using combinations of recombinant cytokines and other defined molecules with ‘immuno-enhancing’ activities.