Table 1 Summary of various immunotherapies for tumors
Type of tumor immunotherapies | Principle | Advantages | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
Cytokine | Activating, proliferating, or differentiating anti-tumor immune cells | Wide application, visible curative effects, and few side effects | Long treatment time, toxicity, and limited treatment scope |
Immune checkpoint-blocking | Targeting the surface regulatory receptor of T lymphocytes to activate proliferative tumor-specific T lymphocytes | Low toxicity, long-term effects, and excellent potential for combination with traditional tumor-targeting therapy and other immunotherapies | Only releases the binding of T lymphocytes already at the edge of the tumor or enhance presentation, cannot promote T cells to attack the tumor, and limited response rate |
Adoptive cell immunotherapy | Adopting tumor-specific T lymphocytes | Good curative effects and specific killing of various tumor cells | Difficulty of separating and expanding tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and bottlenecks in industrial production |
Tumor vaccine | Present tumor antigen triggering anti-tumor antibody and cellular immunity | Good anti-tumor specificity, immune memory, and good prospects of combined use with immunomodulatory antibodies | High cost, undefined adverse reaction, and no drugs with good efficacy |
Oncolytic virus | Proliferation of oncolytic virus inducing tumor lysis | Excellent curative effect on small tumor metastasis and good prospects of combined use with immunomodulatory antibodies | Limited efficacy and inconsistent safety for primary large tumors |