The Dawn of a New Age in Cancer Immunotherapy

It was over one hundred years ago that immunotherapy for cancer was first explored by Dr William Coley with the intratumoral injection of bacterial extracts that resulted in tumor regression in select cases. The emergence of surgical procedures, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy eventually became the mainstay of cancer therapies and relegated immune treatments as an unfulfilled pipedream. Nevertheless, it has been apparent that the immune system can play a role in tumor biology as evident by cases of spontaneous tumor regression and increased cancer incidence among immunosuppressed patients.
Source: Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Preface Source Type: research