[Immunomodulatory treatment approaches for prostate cancer]

During the last 10 years different strategies for immunotherapy of prostate cancer have been investigated. These included unspecific and specific strategies to modulate or stimulate the immune system. For unspecific immunotherapy of prostate cancer innate humoral or cellular immune mechanisms are being stimulated, which are not specific to malignant cells. The global stimulation of the innate immune system is supposed to augment the immune reaction to prostate cancer by initiating an inflammatory reaction or other existing immune mechanisms. The main mediators and effectors of the unspecific immune system include humoral factors such as cytokines, complement system, and acute phase proteins and cellular components such as neutrophils, macrophages/monocytes, mast cells, and natural killer cells.In contrast, specific immunotherapy aims at adaptive immunity. This portion of the immune system can be amplified and thus specifically target tumor cells. Generation of a tumor-specific T cell reaction by vaccination or application of antibodies are the most promising approaches of specific immunotherapy. In a PubMed-based search of the current literature, publications regarding immunotherapy of prostate cancer were identified. The present article focuses on publications presenting clinical studies which investigate immunomodulatory treatments of prostate cancer. The results of these publications are described and discussed.