RESUMO
Cancer immunotherapies are recently gaining attention as viable therapeutic options. There are two types of immunotherapy:passive and active. The passive immunotherapies include several treatments such as monoclonal antibodies,either alone or as antibody-drug conjugates. The active immunotherapies include cancer vaccines which utilize the patient′s own cells as antigen presenting cells and target specific cancer antigens,and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell(CAR-T)therapy which engineers a patient′s T-cells to recognize cancer antigens through chimeric antigen receptors. Recent successes include the US FDA approval of a number of cancer immunotherapies such as treatments utilizing monoclonal antibodies against immune checkpoint inhibitors,the Provenge cancer vaccine that targets prostrate cancer,and a CAR-T against relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia that was designated with breakthrough drug status,all of which has had drug companies investigating cancer immunotherapies with intense enthusiasm. In this review we discuss where the field of immune-oncology stands today,highlight the latest findings and hypothesize future directions.