Science 20 December 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6165 pp. 1432-1433 DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6165.1432
Cancer Immunotherapy
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
This year marks a turning point in cancer, as long-sought efforts to unleash the immune system against tumors are paying off—even if the future remains a question mark.
(...)
Ultimately, we concluded, cancer immunotherapy passes the test. It does so because this year, clinical trials have cemented its potential in patients and swayed even the skeptics. The field hums with stories of lives extended: the woman with a grapefruit-size tumor in her lung from melanoma, alive and healthy 13 years later; the 6-year-old near death from leukemia, now in third grade and in remission; the man with metastatic kidney cancer whose disease continued fading away even after treatment stopped.
As the anecdotes coalesce into data, there's another layer, too, a sense of paradigms shifting. Immunotherapy marks an entirely different way of treating cancer—by targeting the immune system, not the tumor itself. Oncologists, a grounded-in-reality bunch, say a corner has been turned and we won't be going back.
(...)
Full article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6165/1432.full
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In other news: a great Japanese article describing the state of the art in immunotherapy strategies for colorectal cancer. A table so one can have a glimpse:
World J Gastroenterol 2013 December 14; 19(46): 8531-8542
Immunotherapy for colorectal cancer
Shigeo Koido, Toshifumi Ohkusa, Sadamu Homma, Yoshihisa Namiki, Kazuki Takakura, Keisuke Saito,Zensho Ito, Hiroko Kobayashi, Mikio Kajihara, Kan Uchiyama, Seiji Arihiro, Hiroshi Arakawa,Masato Okamoto, Jianlin Gong, Hisao Tajiri
Abstract
The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is on the rise, and the prognosis for patients with recurrent or metastatic disease is extremely poor. Although chemotherapy and radiation therapy can improve survival rates, it is imperative to integrate alternative strategies such as immunotherapy to improve outcomes for patients with advanced CRC. In this review, we will discuss the effect of immunotherapy for inducing cytotoxic T lymphocytes and the major immunotherapeutic approaches for CRC that are currently in clinical trials, including peptide vaccines, dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines, whole tumor cell vaccines, viral vector-based cancer vaccines, adoptive cell transfer therapy, antibody-based cancer immunotherapy, and cytokine therapy. The possibility of combination therapies will also be discussed along with the challenges presented by tumor escape mechanisms.
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Core tip: The prognosis for patients with recurrent or
metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is extremely poor.
Immunotherapy may be effective for treating CRC
patients and/or preventing relapse. The immunotherapeutic
approaches for CRC, including peptide vaccines,
dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines, whole tumor cell
vaccines, viral vector-based cancer vaccines, adoptive
cell transfer therapy, antibody-based cancer immunotherapy,
and cytokine therapy have been demonstrated.
The blockade of multiple immune regulatory
checkpoints combined with immunotherapy and/or
conventional chemotherapy may be effective in treating
patients with advanced CRC.
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The full article, long but really worth-reading, is available here:
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/pdf/v19/i46/8531.pdf
