Recent advances in clinical anti-cancer immunotherapy

Recent successful results with the relatively novel immunotherapeutic anti-cancer strategies such as adoptive T cell transfer (ACT), engineered T cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), therapeutic Sipuleucil-T vaccine and checkpoint blockade inhibitors, do indicate that patient's immune system can be effectively used against autologous tumor cells. Interactions between the immune system and the malignancy are complex but the results obtained using the above mentioned therapeutic approaches indicate acceptable clinical utility, efficacy and safety against several types of cancer. Much work still lies ahead but the success achieved with these modern immunotherapies is undeniable. This paper aims to present a short basic overview of these recent advances in cancer immunotherapy, but one should keep in mind that this field is in a dynamic stage given its success and that many immunotherapeutic agents, not all of them mentioned, are undergoing active clinical testing.