Immunotherapy of cancer: A perspective view

The current intense interest in cancer immunotherapy is largely based on the fact that progress in the clinical treatment of solid tumors has been less spectacular than anticipated, whereas efforts in basic and preclinical cancer research made some rather remarkable strides during the last two decades. The major challenge that now faces research investigators in cancer immunotherapy is to determine the functional characteristics of potentially new molecules, important for cancer immunotherapy in both structural and functional terms, to attempt a correlation of their structure with function and to develop, at the basic and preclinical levels, approaches suitable for potential therapy regimens that can be transferred to the clinic for further development.