[Current advances in cancer immunotherapy (author's transl)].

Immunotherapy is still considered as an important therapeutic method in oncology. Experimental basis do exist which support the individualization of several distinct conditions of immunomodulation, some of them being associated with a therapeutic benefit. Numerous immunomodulation molecules or derivatives are now available for clinical investigations. However, effects of immunomodulators on the immune systems which depend on several unknown factors are actually not always fairly correlated with antitumoral effects. Clinical trials are therefore needed in order to demonstrate that immunotherapy remains a valuable antitumoral treatment. The authors review here the available data obtained from recent clinical studies in man. They attempt to establish the limits of immunotherapy as well as its future possibilities.