Cutting The Brakes To Unleash The Immune System Against Cancer : A Recent, But Radical Remedy

Cutting The Brakes To Unleash The Immune System Against Cancer

Abstract

Humans have known cancer since eons. However, treatment for cancer became available only in the beginning of the twentieth century. Initially, it consisted of surgery and radiotherapy, followed by chemo-therapeutic agents. Modern forms of chemotherapy became available after the mechanism of occurrence of cancer began to be known after the late 1970s. Herceptin ( trastuzumab ) targeted the Human Epidermal Growth Factor (Her) receptor, and thus ushered in a new era in the treatment of Her-2 positive, breast cancer, which is highly malignant. This was followed a decade later by Gleevec( Imanitinib) for the treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ( CML).Gleevec inhibited the tyrosine kinase pathway. The recipients of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine discovered a novel form of pharmacotherapy, targeting cell mediated immune mechanisms, for the treatment of cancer. James Allison and TasukoHonjo, identified inhibitors of cell-mediated immune responses, namely CTLA4 and PD-1 respectively. Monoclonal antibodies targeting these, iminuzulab, pembrolizumab and nivolumab, called as immune checkpoint inhibitors, developed by them, helped treat metastatic cancers. These included malignant melanomas, prostate and breast cancers. These immune checkpoint inhibitors are thus, a radical remedy against mankind’s modern scourge- cancer ![Parlikar S Natl J Integr Res Med, 2018; 9(6): 75-77]