Icon WebMD Expert Blogs  Cancer Realities  From diagnosis and
treatment to remission and survival       Monday, August 13,
2012  Immune Therapies Come of Age  By Richard Frank, MD  Doctor
Examining Test Tube  Ever since the late 1800′s, when Dr.
William Coley tried to treat cancerous tumors in his patients by
injecting those tumors with live bacteria (“Coley’s toxins”) to
elicit an immune response, scientists have been trying to
harness a patient’s own immune system to fight their cancer.
They have tried every manner possible, including vaccination
with modified tumor cells or mixtures of tumor proteins, high
doses of immune-stimulating chemicals such as interferon and
interleukin, the removal/modificiation/return of a patient’s
immune cells, and the development of drugs to redirect the
immune system against cancer. After 120 years of research,
thousands of careers, and billions of dollars spent on this
effort, the result was by and large a resounding failure. That
is, until now.  I do not mean to imply that