There are three main directions for cancer immunotherapy:
1. Immune checkpoint blockade therapy (anti-CTLA4/PD-1/PD-L1) has a good effect on tumors with high mutation burden that can be invaded by T cells, such as melanoma.
Tumors that cannot be infiltrated by immune cells, such as pancreatic cancer and brain tumors, are ineffective in immunotherapy. For colorectal cancer, it is effective for types with high mutations, but not for types with low mutations.
2. Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell(CART)
The fastest CART has entered Phase III clinical trials and has not yet been approved by the FDA. It is effective for some cancers but has large side effects.
3. Antibody-drug conjugates
Currently, there are only two drugs approved by the FDA for clinical treatment: Brentuximab vedotin (trade name: Adcetris®, marketed by Seattle Genetics and Millennium/Takeda) and Trastuzumab emtansine (trade name: Kadcyla, marketed by Genentech and Roche).
Finally, I feel a little bit. There are currently no immunotherapy drugs approved by the US FDA because of their effectiveness. The cellular immunotherapy that many domestic hospitals boast about, such as DC-CIK, is unheard of by the Cancer Institute in the United States. The so-called true and false of cancer immunotherapy are actually relative. The American public believes that immunotherapy is true, because the FDA-approved antibody drugs are indeed effective. Former President Carter's melanoma was cured by immunotherapy. After the Wei Zexi incident, many people in China believed that immunotherapy was fake, because the ineffective treatment of DC-CIK was indeed a method used by a few unscrupulous Chinese doctors to defraud money.
