Immunology and immunotherapy of human cancer: present concepts and clinical developments

Immunotherapy of cancer is entering into a new phase of active investigatio n both at the pre-clinical and clinical level, This is due to the exciting developments in basic immunology and tumour biology that have allowed a tre mendous increase in our understanding of mechanisms of interactions between the immune system and tumour cells, This review briefly summarizes the sta te of the art in basic tumour immunology before discussing the clinical app lications of the new concepts in the clinical setting, Clinical approaches are diverse but can now be based on strong scientific rationales, The analy sis of the available clinical results suggests that, despite some disappoin tments, there is room for optimism that both active immunotherapy (vaccinat ion) and adoptive immunotherapy may soon become part of the therapeutic ars enal to combat cancer in a more efficient way, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ir eland Ltd, All rights reserved.