Immunotherapy - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

In the last decade, immunotherapy has revolutionized the practice of medicine in the field of oncology. This book, Immunotherapy, highlights the immunotherapeutic approaches currently in use and strategies to overcome the associated challenges. As comprehensive knowledge of basic immunology in the context of tumor biology is required to move further along the line of development in translational science, this book provides an overview of the cellular components of the immune system that interact with each other to provide a successful immune response.

Immunotherapy offers promising antitumor activity across multiple cancer types as it does not attack the tumor but primarily revitalizes a suppressed immune system. It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss the immunotherapeutic approaches across the tumor board. However, the book features the role of immune-oncology in acute myeloid leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer, and sarcomas to showcase the recent advances in the management of cancer broadly classified as hematological malignancies, solid tumors, and tumors arising in the connective tissue. The book also discusses alternative formulations and combinatorial approaches to enhance the therapeutic index of these agents.

As immunotherapeutic agents differ significantly from chemotherapeutic agents in response patterns and toxicity profiles, evaluating their safety and efficacy in clinical trials remains a challenge. In this book, we discuss the use of a variety of traditional and new immunotherapy criteria to evaluate response, their inadequacies, and clinical implications. The book also outlines how recent advances in medical imaging technology have the potential to provide high-dimensional data to improve decision support and individualize treatment selection and monitoring. Importantly, the book attempts to increase the awareness to immune related adverse events and the need for aggressive and judicious management of toxicities to improve treatment outcomes in patients on immunotherapy

In short, this book provides a broad understanding of immunotherapy and ways to leverage the immune system to make inroads in the fight against cancer.