ABSTRACT
Development with therapeutic antibodies, cancer vaccines, and cell-based immunotherapeutic approaches reveals its promise but also the relative infancy of the cancer immunotherapy field. Cancer immunotherapy consists of approaches that enhance the host immune system to generate effective immune responses against cancer. Biological response modifiers are compounds which can nonspecifically enhance the immune response, either by directly stimulating the immune system or by the direct induction of tumor cell apoptosis. Monoclonal antibodies bind specifically to one epitope and their application as potential immunotherapeutic agents has received a lot of attention recently. Tumor vaccines are designed to deliver tumor antigens to antigen-presenting cells, which can subsequently induce a tumor specific immune response by the adaptive immune system. Cellular immunotherapy includes the adoptive transfer of autologous or allogeneic activated immune cells. Dendritic cell (DCs) is the professional antigen-presenting cells of the immune system and they have emerged as the most powerful initiators of immune responses.
