New modalities for cancer therapy

Abstract

The classical ways of combating cancer have included surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. More recently, immunotherapy has been added to this armamentarium on the premise that cancer cells differ antigenically from normal cells, and therefore can become the target of immune cells or specifically (mono-clonally) engineered antibodies. Apart from surgery, which aims to remove as much of the tumour as technically possible, all other therapies assume that tumour cells are destroyed preferentially compared to normal tissue, that is, the therapeutic ratio is acceptable, and that in spite of side effects, which can often be not inconsiderable, the benefits derived from these therapies are significant.