Immunotherapy for Cancer: Current Advances and Future Directions

Abstract

Immunotherapy delivers a fundamental shift in the treatment of multiple cancers, offering hope for patients with cancer. Unlike conventional therapies, it leverages the patient’s immune system to precisely identify and destroy cancer cells. The remarkable journey of immunotherapy’s has revolutionized oncology and paved the way for the development of modern immunotherapies. Several approaches are applied for immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapies, cancer vaccines, tumor microenvironment reprogramming, monoclonal antibodies, cytokine therapies, oncolytic virus therapy and combination strategies. Various immunotherapies are being used for different types of cancers like skin, lung, bladder, kidney, liver, breast and blood cancers. Despite providing an effective cancer treatment, immunotherapies face some challenges in their clinical implementation. To overcome these limitations, future directions emphasize the development of personalized and combination therapies, the incorporation of AI and a good delivery system. The main aim of this review is to give an overview of the journey of evolution, different approaches, limitations, advances and future development for immunotherapy in cancer treatment.