Foreword
It is a privilege to write the Foreword for this book which is an outstanding review of cutting edge
cancer immunotherapy. Despite early promises in some cancers, immunotherapy had generally
failed to achieve consistent success. This scenario has changed drastically in the past few years.
Indeed, Science Magazine hailed the advances in cancer immunotherapy as the number one
breakthrough in all scientific disciplines for 2013.
The chapters of the book encompass all the different aspects of cancer immunotherapy and are
authored by worldwide authorities in this field. There is a nice introductory chapter by the editor
J. Song who provides a broad overview of the field. All chapters have a focus on clinical
application and translational medicine. Individual chapters discuss the basic immunology of
cytotoxic T cells, NK cells, dendritic cells, and regulatory T cells. Cancer vaccines draw attention
in the dendritic cell chapter as well as in a focused separate chapter near the end of the book.
Cytokines are also discussed extensively with a chapter discussing the role of IFNα as a vaccine
adjuvant. Potential therapeutic roles for cytokines of the IL-12 family are the basis of another
chapter.
Extensive consideration of technological advances is a focus of the book. These methodologies
include genetic engineering of T cells, targeting of T cell co-stimulation, and antibody
engineering. Adoption of such technologies has shown marked clinical responses in a variety of
cancers. A limitation of the field of adoptive T cell therapy has been the challenge in generally
sufficient numbers of antigen- specific T cells. The generation of such antigen - specific CTL
using iPSC technology then is a fascinating potential solution as proposed in Chapter 10.
I would like to congratulate the editor, J. Song for bringing together a stellar group from around
the world to summarize the current state of the art in the reinvigorated field of cancer
immunotherapy.
Thomas P. Loughran
F. Palmer Weber-Smithfield Foods
Professor in Oncology Research
University of Virginia
USA
Preface
Battling cancer is an all-time endeavor of both clinicians and scientists in the past several decades;
however, the patient outcomes have not been significantly improved with those efforts, which urge
people to find new strategies to change the status quo. In recent years, in the awareness that the
human immune system has its intrinsic mechanism to control microbial pathogens and
dysfunctioned self-tissues, therefore, people started to conceive the idea of treating cancer by
using the immune mechanism that shortly has become a major research field coined as cancer
immunotherapy. After gaining solid evidences in recent years that immunotherapy has critically
enhanced the prognoses of cancer patients, it acclaimed a wider recognition from the society, for
instances, it has been named the 2013 Science’s Breakthrough of the Year. Of note, at this cheerful
moment, it is a great pleasure and honor for us to provide our understandings and perspectives in
cancer immunotherapy by presenting this book to our respected audiences. We hope this book will
help audiences comprehend the concept and mechanistic studies involved in this emerging but
booming subject of cancer immunotherapy.
The key feature of this book is it attempts to summarize different approaches have been studied
and used in cancer immunotherapy based on the different components of human immune system.
The book lists the major immune system components which have been demonstrated involving in
limiting or killing tumor and their relevant applications in treating cancer patients. In addition,
general introductions of engineered as well as targeted cancer immunotherapies are also included
in this book to further broad the scope of our audiences. In summary, this book serves as a big map
trying to picture all major branches in cancer immunotherapy; meanwhile, it also tries to pull
different information together to give our audiences a general impression of utilizing components
of the immune system in treating cancer.
In terms of the organization of this book, first of all, in the opening section of this book, it briefly
summarizes the major features of different components of human immune system then introduces
the relationships and interactions between tumor and the immune system. Later on, it focuses on
the immunity of different immune components that against tumor and their relevant applications in
clinics. The second section emphasizes on the cancer immunotherapy by using engineered
components of the immune system to treat cancer, such as engineered antibodies, T cell receptors
and cytokines. Following this, the concluding section of this book puts some outlooks on the
emerging studies in designing of potential new cancer therapies, for example, targeting
costimulatory signals in controlling T cell function; applying stem cell as a novel source of T cells
in treating cancer; restraining aberrant regulatory T cells in cancer patients, and modulating tumor
microenvironment to minimize its suppressive effects on anti-cancer immunity.
Hopefully, this book series will provide an introductory description about this complex concept of
cancer immunotherapy. For the best comprehension and use of the knowledge and insights this
book provides, readers are highly recommended to read the references listed at the end of each
chapter and browse up-to-date literatures on specific topic readers are interested in. Also, we
acknowledge that it is merely possible to cover all detailed information about this fast-growing
specialty of cancer immunotherapy in this book through our limited efforts, therefore, we sincerely encourage our readers to keep searching the most updated literature and we believe this is the most
efficient approach to capture the essences in cancer immunotherapy.
Jianxun Song
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey, PA 17033
USA
List of Contributors
Editor(s):
Jianxun Song
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Contributor(s):
Adam W. Mailloux
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
SRB 23033, Tampa
FL 33612
USA
Anatoliy Markiv
Faculty of Sciences and Technology
University of Westminster
London
UK
Carol A. Kruse
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine,University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Colin C. Malone
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine,University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Elena I. Fomchenko
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine,University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Fengyang Lei
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Hiroshi Kawamoto
Department of Immunology
Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University
Kyoto 606-8507
Japan
Ivan Shevchenko
Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg and Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology
University Medical Center Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg
Mannheim
Germany
Jianxun Song
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Kate L. Erickson
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Kazuya Ofuji
Division of Cancer Immunotherapy
Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center
Japan
Kristin Fino
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Linda M. Liau
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine,
University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Mayuko Sakai
Division of Cancer Immunotherapy
Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center
Japan
Megan C. Duggan
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus
OH 43210
USA
Ming-Song Li
Department of Gastroenterology
Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University
Guangzhou
China
Mohammad Haque
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Pearlie K. Epling-Burnette
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, SRB 23033
Tampa
FL 33612
USA
Richard G. Everson
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Robert M. Prins
Department of Neurosurgery
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California
Los Angeles
CA 90095
USA
Stephen Gottschalk
Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children’s Hospital
Houston Methodist Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine
Houston
Texas
USA
/
Department of Pediatrics, and Pathology and Immunology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston
Texas
USA
Steven De Vleeschouwer
Department of Neurosciences
Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy
KU Leuven
Belgium
Tania G. Rodríguez-Cruz
Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children’s Hospital
Houston Methodist Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine
Houston
Texas
USA
Tetsuya Nakatsura
Division of Cancer Immunotherapy
Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center
Japan
Toshiaki Yoshikawa
Division of Cancer Immunotherapy
Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center
Japan
Viktor Umansky
Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg and
Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology
University Medical Center Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karl University of
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Germany
William E. Carson III
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus
OH 43210
USA
Xiaofang Xiong
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey
PA 17033
USA
Xue-Feng Bai
Department of Pathology and Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus
OH
USA
Yangbing Zhao
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,Abramson
Family Cancer Research Institute
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
PA 19104
USA
Yu Sawada
Division of Cancer Immunotherapy
Exploratory Oncology Research and Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center
Japan
Yun Shi
Department of Pathology and Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus
OH
USA
/
Department of Gastroenterology
Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University
Guangzhou
China
Zhenzhen Liu
Department of Pathology and Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus
OH
USA