Immunotherapy is treatment that uses a person's own immune system to fight cancer in the body. Immunotherapy can either boost or change how the immune system works so it can find and attack cancer cells. Immunotherapy represents a paradigm shift in the field of oncology. The foremost goal of immunotherapy is to overcome immunosuppression induced by a tumour and its microenvironment, thereby allowing the immune system to target and kill cancer cells.
The immunotherapy era began when the first immune checkpoint inhibitor, ipilimumab, was approved for use almost a decade ago. This therapeutic approach is associated with distinct types of response, including processes such as pseudoprogression (ie, increased tumour burden radiologically, which is not accompanied by clinical deterioration) and hyperprogression (ie, rapid progression of the disease as a result of immunotherapy). There are…
