Devaraja K, Singh Manisha, Sharan Krishna, Aggarwal Sadhna
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576104, India.
Department of GI Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Biomedicines. 2024 Nov 30;12(12):2746. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12122746.
Cancer immunobiology is one of the hot topics of discussion amongst researchers today, and immunotherapeutic modalities are among the selected few emerging approaches to cancer treatment that have exhibited a promising outlook. However, immunotherapy is not a new kid on the block; it has been around for centuries. The origin of cancer immunotherapy in modern medicine can be traced back to the initial reports of spontaneous regression of malignant tumors in some patients following an acute febrile infection, at the turn of the twentieth century. This review briefly revisits the historical accounts of immunotherapy, highlighting some of the significant developments in the field of cancer immunobiology, that have been instrumental in bringing back the immunotherapeutic approaches to the forefront of cancer research. Some of the topics covered are: Coley's toxin-the first immunotherapeutic; the genesis of the theory of immune surveillance; the discovery of T lymphocytes and dendritic cells and their roles; the role of tumor antigens; relevance of tumor microenvironment; the anti-tumor (therapeutic) ability of Bacillus Calmette- Guérin; Melacine-the first therapeutic vaccine engineered; theories of immunoediting and immunophenotyping of cancer; and Provenge-the first FDA-approved therapeutic vaccine. In this review, head and neck cancer has been taken as the reference tumor for narrating the progression of cancer immunobiology, particularly for highlighting the advent of immunotherapeutic agents.
癌症免疫生物学是当今研究人员讨论的热门话题之一，免疫治疗方法是少数几种新兴的癌症治疗方法，已展现出广阔前景。然而，免疫疗法并非新生事物，它已存在了数百年。现代医学中癌症免疫疗法的起源可追溯到20世纪初，当时有报道称一些患者在急性发热感染后恶性肿瘤出现自发消退。本综述简要回顾了免疫疗法的历史，重点介绍了癌症免疫生物学领域的一些重大进展，这些进展促使免疫治疗方法重新回到癌症研究的前沿。涵盖的一些主题包括：科利毒素——第一种免疫疗法；免疫监视理论的起源；T淋巴细胞和树突状细胞的发现及其作用；肿瘤抗原的作用；肿瘤微环境的相关性；卡介苗的抗肿瘤（治疗）能力；美拉西丁——第一种工程化治疗性疫苗；癌症免疫编辑和免疫表型分析理论；以及普罗文奇——第一种获美国食品药品监督管理局批准的治疗性疫苗。在本综述中，头颈癌被用作叙述癌症免疫生物学进展的参考肿瘤，特别是为了突出免疫治疗药物的出现。
