ABSTRACT
The management of gynecologic malignancies has been expanded in recent years to encompass not only a spectrumof surgical and cytotoxic therapies, but also treatments that target in amore specific manner the genetic, phenotypic, andmicroenvironmental differences between cancer and the ‘‘normal’’ tissue compartment. Immunotherapy has already shown credible evidence of clinical responses in human malignancies, including malignant melanoma, renal cancer, lymphoma, and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Widespread application of recombinant DNA technology, which includes production of cytokines, other activatingmolecules, and reengineered human antibodies, is providing a broad and comprehensive array of immunotherapeutic tools. In addition, there is a rapidly expanding knowledge base on tumor immunology and the role of the microenvironment in cancer, which is providing the resources for hypothesis-driven clinical trials.
