[Immunotherapy].

Immunotherapy against cancer gained popularity as a treatment modality based on the experimental model data that seemed to indicate that both specific stimulation of the immune response with antigen-bearing tumor cells and nonspecific stimulation with bacteria and other adjuvant-type compounds could enhance the existing immune response of the host and prevent recurrence or delay tumor growth. The recent, tremendous advances in molecular biology have given scientists the capability to clone individual genes and thereby produce huge quantities of highly purified products of the human genome. The role of biologically active substances as important pharmacologic reagents was initially explored in human with purified interferon. A purified recombinant interferon, using genes cloned and introduced into bacteria, was being tested in cancer-patients. The discovery of other potent biologically active substances, that is IL-2, TNF, IL-1, LT, thymic factor and monoclonal antibodies, has made tenable the initiation of clinical trials in cancer-patients.