Immunotherapy and genitourinary neoplasia: An overview

Abstract

The role of the immune response in cancer remains unclear. The very existence of tumor-associated antigens, as well as the relevance of in vitro and in vivo models of immune response mechanisms in cancer to the clinical setting have been seriously questioned. The apparent complexity of immune response mechanisms, their stimulatory or inhibitory interactions, and the unpredictability of a particular cancer's natural history have increased uncertainty concerning the influence of immune response mechanisms in developing and progressive cancers. This may account not only for the failures that immunotherapeutic approaches in cancer treatment have had, but also for our inability to understand clearly the reasons for such failures. This review will summarize the variety of immunotherapeutic approaches that have been used to treat different forms of genitourinary neoplasia. It will focus on those factors that may have accounted for the meager success that has been achieved, and in so doing, attempt to identify new directions that may hold promise in cancer immunotherapy.