Immunotherapy for Transforming Advanced Cancer into a Chronic Disease: How Far Are We?

Abstract:

For chronic diseases medical success does not mean cure, but long-term control, improved quality of life (QoL), and better management of complications. Nowadays, a slow and continuous transformation of advanced cancer into a chronic disease is occurring. The evolution to chronicity is evidenced by a trend to increasing survival, the shape of the survival curves, and the appearance of second tumors in patients with the primary disease under control. Immunotherapy, where the target is the immune system, has been instrumental in transforming cancer into a chronic disease. Several drugs, including checkpoint inhibitors are already improving significantly the overall survival of patients with disseminated cancer. Overall, any oncoming therapy should be amenable for long-term use, should preserve the QoL, and should be useful in elderly patients with comorbidities. Cancer programs should include "complex packages" encompassing primary and secondary prevention, early diagnosis, and better therapeutic tools. Beyond biology and clinical research, a scientific approach will be needed to evaluate the performance of health systems in handling chronic diseases including cancer.

Año de publicación:

2016

Keywords:

• Cáncer
• Cancer Vaccines
• Clinical trial
• antibody
• immunotherapy
• Chronicity

Fuente:

scopus