The use of immunologic (the stimulation of the body’s immune system) approaches for cancer treatment has been pursued for over decades. Although there was great excitement about the used of non-specific stimulants to the immune system in the 1960’s. i.e. BCG and C. parvum, these approaches were largely ineffective in humans. Most recently with the advent of genetic engineering and the subsequent immunobiologic technology, various new immunologic treatment modalities have been developed and are being investigated such as (a) genetically engineered tumor cell vaccines; (b) interferon; (c) interleukin; (d) tumor necrosis factor; and (e) designer monoclonal antibodies. All of these biologics have the capability, if properly applied, of stimulating the immune response to destroy human cancer. The continued investigation of these approaches is important.
