| Abstract: | In the end of May this year, Chicago hosted the traditional annual meeting of oncologists from around the world, which was organised by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Once again, the meeting was attended by more than 30,000 oncologists and other scientists from all over the world. The main topic of this year’s ASCO meeting was definitely cancer immunotherapy. For many years, we have hoped to be able to destroy or at least control cancer cells by stimulating the organism’s own defence. There have been some ups but mostly many downs of immunotherapy. Interferons, interleukins and vaccines have shown a very small level of efficacy, and, even so, only in some types of cancer, alongside a disproportionally high toxicity. A breakthrough was achieved a few years ago, when new immuno-medicines, inhibitors of control switches in T lymphocytes (so-called checkpoint inhibitors), were introduced into clinical trials. In many types of cancer, these medicines led to remissions, which were, most importantly, long-term in patients with remission. |
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