Cancer immunotherapy trials: leading a paradigm shift in drug development
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer20164:42
© The Author(s). 2016
Received: 15 April 2016
Accepted: 6 July 2016
Published: 19 July 2016
Background
Cancer immunotherapy has a long history in the clinic. William Coley was an orthopedic surgeon in the late 1800’s who noted marked tumor regression in a patient with severe erysipelas. Based on this observation, he hypothesized that stimulating the immune system could effectively treat cancer. Thus, over the next decades he gave various bacterial products, including live bacteria, to patients with advanced cancers [1]. Although toxicity was often substantial, he and his colleagues noted tumor regressions in some patients, particularly those with bone and soft tissue sarcomas. His work was groundbreaking in strategy and method, but eventually fell out of favor due to lack of scientific control and the advent of radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer treatment. Despite this, he was a pioneering physician-scientist. His work is notable because his hypothesis that the immune system can be harnessed to treat cancer is the bedrock of the striking success of cancer immunotherapy today.
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