Current Status and Perspective of Immunotherapy in Gastrointestinal Cancers

Cancer immunotherapy is at dawn of the Renaissance after the Medieval Dark Ages. Recent advances of understanding tumor immunology and molecular drug development are leading us to the epoch of cancer immunotherapy. Some types of immunotherapy have shown to provide survival benefit for patients with solid tumors such as malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, or non-small cell lung cancer. Several studies have suggested that immune checkpoint inhibition might be effective in some patients with gastrointestinal cancers. However, the era of cancer immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers is still in an inchoate stage. Here we briefly review the current status and perspective of immunotherapeutic approaches in patients with gastrointestinal cancers.