Production of recombinant immunotherapeutics for anticancer treatment: the role of bioengineering

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most important health problems because many cases are difficult to prevent. Cancer still has unknown mechanisms of pathogenesis, and its capacity to produce temporary or permanent damage, besides death, is very high. Although many anticancer therapies are available, finding a cure for cancer continues to be a difficult task. Thus, many efforts have been made to develop more effective treatments, such as immunotherapy based on a new class of tumor-specific products that are produced using recombinant DNA technology. These recombinant products are used with the main objectives of killing the tumor and stimulating immune cells to respond to the cancer cells. The principal recombinant products in anticancer therapy are immunostimulants, vaccines, antibodies, immunotoxins and fusion proteins. This review focuses on the general aspects of these genetically engineered products, their clinical performance, current advances and future prospects for this type of anticancer therapy.

Keywords: antibodies; cancer vaccines; fusion proteins; immunostimulants; immunotherapy; immunotoxins; recombinant drugs.