[Cancer genetic immunotherapy]

S Paul1, E Regulier, R Etienne

  • 1Transgène S.A., laboratoire d'immunologie clinique et expérimentale, 2, rue Adolphe-Hirn, 67082 cedex, Strasbourg, France. paul@transgene.fr

The concept of cancer immunotherapy and the resulting technical advances have evolved considerably during the last decade. However, cancer treatment by recombinant IL-2 or IFN-alpha still represents today the best therapeutic way for the treatment of renal carcinoma, melanoma and in some cases lymphoma. The immunotherapy approaches such as vaccination, gene and cellular therapy, have not yet demonstrated a sufficient clinical efficacy for the treatment of solid tumors. The goal of this review is to summarize the different approaches to cancer immunotherapy developed today. Specific approaches such as antigenic vaccination will be first described, then non-specific approaches such as gene transfer on the tumor site of immuno-stimulating genes will be discussed.

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