Immune approaches to treating osteosarcoma.

摘要

There is a critical need for new effective therapies in the clinical management of patients with osteosarcoma. Immune modulation has been a strategy investigated in these patients. Immunotherapy approaches in cancer take a variety of forms including antibody administration, cytokine/immune adjuvants and a variety of in vivo and ex vivo vaccination strategies. In the context of osteosarcoma, this has manifested itself as investigation of multiple strategies including activation of macrophages with immunomodulatory drugs [muramyl tripeptide-phosphatidyl ethanolamine (MTP-PE), Junovan] or cytokine administration [systemic interferon or inhaled granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF)] all of which have been tested in Phase 2 and/or Phase 3 osteosarcoma clinical trials and will be discussed further subsequently.