Immunotherapy, a promising approach in the fight against cancer

A novel and promising vision in the fight against cancer is immunotherapy. This treatment stimulates the patient's immune system to detect and suppress the tumor. Inhibition of the programmed cell death signaling form-1 (PD-1) with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) efficient against PD-1 or its ligand PD-L1, seems to be an effective method of causing recession of the tumor in patients with the developed disease.

Although this class of therapies are still in progress, clinical trials have shown positive results regarding kidney cancer and melanoma , types of tumors in which the efficacy of immunotherapy has already been confirmed.

In recent years, long-lasting improvements with immunotherapy have also been observed in patients with bladder, head and neck cancer and lung cancer.. This last type, had always been considered resistant to immunotherapy). The options of success in the treatment of cancer will, to a great extent, depend on: finding the therapy, or combination of therapies, appropriate for each patient.

Currently, the classic morphological features are relegated to the background at the time of the therapeutic approach; knowing the genetic characteristics of the tumor is what helps us to select the optimal treatment for each patient.