Nearly half of the biotechnology drugs in clinical trials (154 of 324) are being developed for the treatment of cancer, according to the Pharmaceutical Researcher and Manufacturers of America's (PhRMA) 2004 survey of biotechnology medicines. Over 50% of these trials (95 of 154) are investigating cancer immunotherapies—therapeutics that use the immune system or immune system factors to promote a response to combat the disease. The large number of ongoing clinical trials hints at the importance of the field and its potential for changing how cancer will be treated in the future.
Cancer immunotherapy sits at the interface of advances in the understanding of cancer and the understanding of the immune system....