The oncology world appears to be on the verge of revolution, not simply evolution. The notion of immunotherapy as a means of cancer therapy has been one of the oncological “holy grails” for years. Major developments have been seen in melanoma first with ipilimumab which targets CTLA-4 and augments the immune attack on cancer. The inhibitors against PD1 and PDl1 have a different mechanism blocking immune tolerance to cancer, or as I like to think of it, removing the cancer camouflage, exposing it to attack. The Austin and other institutions are now in the throes of Phase I-III studies testing these new agents. This was as a result of data such as http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200690 where an efficacy signal was seen for the first time.
