The emergence of
real-time diagnostics for complex diseases will mark the beginning of the end
of their debilitating reign by 2020. The ability to monitor cancer, the dynamic
immune system, intestinal flora and pre-diabetes in real-time will change the nature
of medicine and usher in a new era of human health where wellness is protected
versus illness treated. As a result, fundamental shifts in healthcare will
occur, causing it to become largely preventative rather than fire-fighting.
These
are exciting times for cancer immunotherapy. After many years of disappointing
results, the tide has finally changed and immunotherapy has become a clinically
validated treatment for many cancers. Immunotherapeutic strategies include
cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, adoptive transfer of ex vivo activated T
and natural killer cells, and administration of antibodies or recombinant
proteins that either costimulate cells or block the so-called immune checkpoint
pathways.
The recent success of several immunotherapeutic regimes, such
as monoclonal antibody blocking of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4
(CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), has boosted the development
of this treatment modality, with the consequence that new therapeutic targets
and schemes which combine various immunological agents are now being described
at a breathtaking pace.
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