The swinging pendulum of cancer immunotherapy personalization

Per Med. 2017 May;14(3):259-270. doi: 10.2217/pme-2016-0108. Epub 2017 May 5.

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy has long offered the promise of producing cancer treatments that are more effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. That potential has only begun to be realized in the last 5 years with the first US FDA-approved cancer vaccine (sipuleucel-T), checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cell therapy. While these therapies have been remarkably more effective than previous cancer immunotherapeutics, they are often limited by their inherently personalized nature. Indeed, each patient's immune system and cancer are unique, limiting the scalability and generalizability of new approaches. However, emerging solutions may overcome these limitations, producing 'off-the-shelf' cancer immunotherapies that transform patient outcomes.

Keywords: BiKEs; BiTEs; CAR-T cells; TriKEs; adoptive cell therapy; antitumor immunity; bispecific T-cell engagers; bispecific killer cell engagers; cancer immunotherapy; checkpoint inhibitors; trispecific killer cell engagers; vaccines.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Bispecific / therapeutic use
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / therapeutic use
  • Cancer Vaccines / immunology
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy / methods*
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive / methods
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive / statistics & numerical data*
  • Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Precision Medicine / trends

Substances

  • Antibodies, Bispecific
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Cancer Vaccines