[Anemia and immunotherapy]

Immunotherapy of cancer is an old concept and specific or non specific approaches have been developed for decades. These early trials have never demonstrated any benefit and have largely been abandoned. The advent of recombinant techniques allowing to produce large amounts of cytokines, the recent description of tumour antigens expressed by tumor cell surface, the rapid increase in immunological knowledge and the development of molecular biology have rekindled interest in immunological therapy of cancer. Extensive clinical experience using cytokines and more recently monoclonal antibodies is now available and allows us to report on immunotherapy-induced anemia.