Zusammenfassung
As renal cell carcinoma represents one of the most immune-responsive cancers, immunotherapy exhibits a suitable treatment basis. Beside nonspecific stimulation via cytokines, passive specific and active immunotherapy are also appropriate options to recognize and destroy tumor cells. For more than 30 years, research regarding vaccination therapy has been of special interest for the treatment of ...
Zusammenfassung
As renal cell carcinoma represents one of the most immune-responsive cancers, immunotherapy exhibits a suitable treatment basis. Beside nonspecific stimulation via cytokines, passive specific and active immunotherapy are also appropriate options to recognize and destroy tumor cells. For more than 30 years, research regarding vaccination therapy has been of special interest for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. However, apart from occasional promising results in Phase I and II trials, vaccination therapy is still considered experimental in this tumor entity, especially owing to missing results from Phase III trials demonstrating clinical efficacy. In the present article, we review data from completed clinical trials of vaccination therapy and also discuss scheduled future trials, in order to assess the current position and possible future fields of application of vaccination therapy in renal cell carcinoma in the era of recently developed targeted therapies.