Immunonkologie

The idea of using the body’s own immune system for cancer treatment is not new but dates back to the eighteenth century. Immuno-oncology has only been established in recent years as an essential pillar of cancer treatment.

This article provides a brief summary of the current immuno-oncological standards for solid tumors, addresses innovative treatment approaches and combination strategies and discusses future strategies and developments.

Immunotherapeutic agents are an important pillar of modern treatment for solid tumors. Immune checkpoint inhibitors in particular have contributed to this and are part of the standard treatment for almost all entities. Nevertheless, response rates are still unsatisfactory, partly due to the side effects and resistance mechanisms. It is therefore essential to use combination therapies and precision immunological approaches to further develop immuno-oncology in the light of personalized oncology and to use genetic and immunological profiles of the tumor tissue and corresponding host factors for tailored and more effective treatment concepts. Cellular and antibody-based therapies, vaccine approaches and combinations with cytokines and other immunomodulators are the most promising approaches. In addition, the development of predictive biomarkers is essential to enable better treatment navigation, optimization of sequences and the identification of promising subgroups. Multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) models offer attractive options to integrate multiple data sets.

Immuno-oncology has enormous potential in the context of personalized oncology to develop biomarker-supported treatment concepts with greater effectiveness through new therapeutic approaches and combination treatments.