Full | 23L006 Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer is one of the most leading causes of death worldwide. Cancer incidence will continue to rise in the next decades. Cancer represents the major health threat to our society. Many cancer patients are not suitable for surgeries, leaving chemo-therapies, radio-therapies, and targeted-therapies as the only treatment options. All these options aim to target cancer cells to limit their uncontrollable growth. However, these treatments at the same time are damaging normal cells, resulting in severe side effects in cancer patients. Recently, immunotherapies, which aim to activate the immune system to combat cancer cells, have emerged as the mainstream cancer treatment. The clinical success of immunotherapies is unprecedented which significantly contributes to its popularity. This lecture will focus on the introduction of our immune system and its importance in fighting cancer, the basic principles of different kinds of anti-cancer immunotherapies, their advantages and disadvantages, the preclinical and clinical evidence that shows the power of immunotherapies, and the future drug innovations and directions of immunotherapies as cancer treatments.