A novel and promising approach in the fight against cancer is immunotherapy. This treatment stimulates the patient’s immune system to detect and suppress the tumor. Inhibition of the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) signaling pathway with efficient monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PD-1 or its ligand PD-L1 appears to be an effective method of causing tumor regression in patients with advanced disease.
Although this class of therapies is still in progress, clinical trials have shown positive results in kidney cancer and melanoma, tumor types in which the efficacy of immunotherapy has already been demonstrated.
In recent years, long-lasting improvements with immunotherapy have also been observed in patients with bladder, head and neck and lung cancer. The latter type had always been considered resistant to immunotherapy). The chances of success in cancer treatment will largely depend on: finding the appropriate therapy, or combination of therapies, for each patient.
Currently, the classical morphological particularities are relegated to the background when it comes to the therapeutic approach; knowing the genetic characteristics of the tumor is what helps us to select the optimal treatment for each patient.