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Editorial
. 2011 Jul 21:9:115.
doi: 10.1186/1479-5876-9-115.

Combination therapy: the next opportunity and challenge of medicine

Paolo A Ascierto, Francesco M Marincola
Editorial

Combination therapy: the next opportunity and challenge of medicine

Paolo A Ascierto et al. J Transl Med. .

Abstract

From an historical point of view, combination therapy was the basis for the care of important diseases like infection diseases or cancer. Today the "cocktail drug" of the Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy (HAART) has reduced the death for HIV infection changing the outcome of such disease. Moreover, the combination of different strategies changed the course of transplants (both in haematology and surgical transplant). Different diseases with high social impact including cardiovascular, metabolic (obesity, hypercholesterolaemia and diabetes) and autoimmune diseases, have better results with combinations of different drug classes of drugs. After recent successes in the immunotherapy field (Sepuleucel-T, ipilimumab) and the new promising small molecule therapies, cancer should be the next challenge for combination strategies.

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