Immunotherapy for melanoma: the good, the bad, and the future

The past 20 years have seen remarkable advances in our understanding of the molecular and cellular processes controlling the development of an anticancer immune response. These advances have spawned a renaissance in the field of cancer immunotherapy, the original targeted therapy, during which investigators have pushed the envelope and translated promising strategies into investigational therapeutics in patients with cancer. An approach that combined nonmyeloablative lymphodepleting chemotherapy with adoptive transfer of tumor-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells exhibited an initial objective response rate of 51% for patients with stage IV melanoma. Although this strategy is extremely challenging, one can expect technological advances that may simplify this approach and further improve outcome.