ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the current status of immunologic approaches, especially those relevant to development of cancer vaccines. It reviews sequentially each of the cytokines tested and analyzes their efficacy from the standpoint of three separate and increasingly difficult objectives of cytokine gene delivery: to abrogate establishment of tumo, to immunize naive animals against wild-type tumor, and to treat animals with established tumors. Cytokines are pleiotropic mediators that can modulate and shape the quality and intensity of the immune response, either activating and augmenting or alternatively suppressing some immunologic events. Cytokines are occasionally autocrine or endocrine but largely paracrine hormones, and they are produced mainly by lymphocytes and monocytes. Cancer gene therapy is different from therapies being developed for the treatment of hereditary genetic defects due to the varied origins and characteristics of cancer cells. Efforts in cancer gene therapy are somewhat limited by the gene transfer methods and available molecules.
