Current perspectives on immunotherapy for colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer immunotherapy is currently under investigation as a poten tial adjuvant treatment. There are a number of approaches that come under t his heading. Active nonspecific immunotherapy aims to stimulate the immune system as a whole, without targeting any individual tumor-associated antige n (TAA), while adoptive immunotherapy takes either tumor-infiltrating or pe ripheral blood lymphocytes and stimulates them with cytokine prior to reinf usion back into the patient. Monoclonal antibodies are designed to target s pecific TAA and cause tumor cell death by apoptosis, antibody-dependent cel l-mediated cytotoxicity or complement. The most diverse approach, however, involves attempting to stimulate the immune system to target cancer cells a nd is known as active specific immunotherapy. This includes peptide vaccine s, anti-idiotypic antibodies, mucin, DNA/RNA (polynucleotide-mediated immun ization) and heat shock protein-based vaccines, as well as viral vectors. ( C) 2000 Prous Science. All rights reserved.