They are the new hope in the fight against cancer: immunotherapies are intended to encourage the body’s own defenses to recognize tumor cells better and destroy them in a targeted manner. Special antibodies, tailor-made T-killer cells and also new types of vaccines help here. Many of these therapeutic approaches are still experimental, but in the future they could significantly expand the arsenal of cancer medicine.
Our immune system is actually well equipped to recognize and eradicate degenerated cells. In practice, however, this often does not work because cancer cells have developed sophisticated strategies to circumvent the immune system. Medicine is therefore working on therapies that arm the immune system against these tumor strategies. But where do these immunotherapies start? Who do they benefit? And how far is the development?