History of Immunotherapy – from Coley Toxins to Checkpointsof the Immune Reaction

Czech version

Authors: B. Říhová ^1*; M. Šťastný ^2**
Authors‘ workplace: Mikrobiologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Praha ¹; Bristol‑ Myers Squibb spol. s r. o., Praha ²
Published in: Klin Onkol 2015; 28(Supplementum 4): 8-14
Category: Generals
doi: https://doi.org/10.14735/amko20154S8

Overview

Immunotherapy dates back to 1868 when German physicist Busch intentionally infected patients suffering from soft tissue sarcoma with erysipelas. Rapid tumor shrinkage was observed but response was only partial and tumor recurrence subsequently occurred. It was William B. Coley who in 1891 injected a patient with a soft tissue sarcoma with streptococcal cultures. Following a severe attack of erysipelas, the tumor underwent extensive necrosis and the patient remained diseasefree for eight years. The mixture of Streptococcus and other bacteria including Seratia marcescens, Staphylococcus and Escherichia coli was referred to as ’Coley’s toxin’ and was used for the next 45 years. This first immunotherapy was replaced at the beginning of the 20^th century by more exact radiotherapy and later on by first chemotherapy with yperit. However, immunotherapy is a treatment that uses patient’s own immune system to help fight cancer and as such has several advantages over other treatments. Thus, the next major milestones in immunotherapy came in the middle of the 80s as a) adoptive cell therapy relaying on patients’ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, b) injection of recombinant cytokines such as rIL‑2, c) identification of the first tumorassociated antigens and d) development of tumor specific monoclonal antibodies. It was followed by dendritic cells vaccines. Tremendous progress has been made in the past two decades with regard to understanding the complex interactions between tumors and the immune system and developing innovative ways to manipulate the antitumor immune response. It is recently represented as blockage of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Key words:
BCG vaccine – adoptive cellular immunotherapy – cancer recognition

* The author declares she has no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study.

** I declare that, in connection with this contribution of which I am the author/coauthor, I have a conflict of interest with following company: Bristol-Myers Squibb al. s r. o.

This work was supported by grant GACZ P301/12/1254 a IGA MH CZ NT/11542-6.

Author is former employee of Institute of Microbiology of the AS CR, v. v. i., Prague.

The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE recommendation for biomedical papers.

Submitted:
4. 8. 2015

Accepted:
14. 9. 2015

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