Immunotherapy of lung cancer: An update

In Germany lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated
death in men. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation may enhance
survival of patients suffering from lung cancer but the enhancement
is typically transient and mostly absent with advanced disease;
eventually more than 90% of lung cancer patients will die of
disease. New approaches to the treatment of lung cancer are
urgently needed. Immunotherapy may represent one new approach with
low toxicity and high specificity but implementation has been a
challenge because of the poor antigenic characterization of these
tumors and their ability to escape immune responses. Several
different immunotherapeutic treatment strategies have been
developed. This review examines the current state of development
and recent advances with respect to non-specific immune
stimulation, cellular immunotherapy ( specific and non-specific),
therapeutic cancer vaccines and gene therapy for lung cancer. The
focus is primarily placed on immunotherapeutic cancer treatments
that are already in clinical trial or well progressed in
preclinical studies. Although there seems to be a promising future
for immunotherapy in lung cancer, presently there is not standard
immunotherapy available for clinical routine.