Current immunotherapy in gastrointestinal malignancies A Review

Dushyant Singh Dahiya, Asim Kichloo, Jagmeet Singh, Michael Albosta, Manidhar Lekkala
2020 Journal of Investigative Medicine  
Immunotherapy is an extremely important breakthrough and an exciting new modality of treatment for a wide spectrum of cancers. It is focused around developing agents to stimulate or suppress the immune system, in a specific manner, to fight off a wide spectrum of diseases, particularly cancers. Traditional therapies available for the treatment of cancers include surgical intervention, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these, which tend to be very non-specific. However,
more » ... erapy shows a stark difference from conventional therapy, in fact, that it has a high level of specificity for the tumor-specific antigens. The recent success of cancer immunotherapies in clinical trials is slowly revolutionizing the landscape for cancer therapy. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved numerous agents, after clinical trials showed promising results, for the treatment of multiple cancers. The role of immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers has also been very promising, particularly in patients with advanced metastatic disease or malignancies refractory to initial treatment. In this review of literature, we detail and discuss the immunotherapy agents approved for the treatment of GI cancers and glance at the future of immunotherapy for patients with these cancers.
doi:10.1136/jim-2020-001654 pmid:33443046 fatcat:v4qsmfmfh5cvnp7j5falv4dajq