Abstract
Recent advances in the knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for antitumor immunity have stimulated the elaboration of new cancer immunotherapeutic strategies. Moreover, more recent discoveries have demonstrated that immune responses are under a physiological modulatory control played by several neuroendocrine pathways, which explain the differences between the in vivo and in vitro immune responses. While until a few years ago the evaluation of the immune status of cancer patients was substantially established on the basis of clinical empirical criteria, recent discoveries of the antitumor cytokine network have allowed the biochemical bases of anticancer immunity to be defined, leading to new anticancer immunotherapeutic strategies, on the basis of patient neuroendocrine and neuroimmune status, in an attempt to correct the great number of cancer-related alterations on the basis of knowledge of the physiopathology of anticancer immunity. The rationale for cancer neuroimmunotherapy consists of the possibility to enhance the efficacy of the various immunotherapeutic strategies by a concomitant administration of antitumor cytokines (namely IL-2), in addition to neuroendocrine endogenous molecules (namely the pineal indole hormones), able to stimulate the anticancer immunoresponse by amplifying the anticancer reaction and/or by counteracting the generation of immunosuppressive events.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.