Immunotherapy and Cancer Therapeutics: Why Partner?

The oncology field understands the immunobiology of the host–tumor interaction at the molecular level. The ability to maximize the bioactivity and the clinical efficacy of the immune-based therapies is at a high. This opportunity strategically combines the immunotherapies with the traditional and the novel cancer drugs to shape both the global host environment and the local tumor environment, and to ameliorate the distinct layers of the immune tolerance—ultimately supporting a vigorous and sustained antitumor immune response. Within this modified host environment, the immunotherapy treatment regimens that: combining the tumor vaccines or tumor specific lymphocytes with the targeted drugs that amplify the magnitude and quality of the end immune effectors, and relieving the normal controls at specific points in the process of T cell activation, will be critical for success. Working out the proper dose and the sequencing of drugs that goes into these complex combination immunotherapy regimens in clinically relevant laboratory models can accelerate the clinical development.