Immunotherapy Applications in Oncology
Summary
Immunotherapy has transformed oncology by harnessing the body’s own immune system to recognise and eradicate malignant cells. Therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell transfer and engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cells enhance T-cell activity against tumour antigens, leading to durable responses in a range of solid tumours and haematological malignancies. Unlike conventional cytotoxic therapies, immunotherapies can yield long-term survival plateaux in responsive patients, reflecting mechanisms of immunological memory. The identification of predictive biomarkers, optimisation of combination strategies and management of unique immune-related adverse events are central to current research efforts. Globally, the integration of immunotherapy into standard-of-care regimens has improved outcomes in melanoma, lung cancer, lymphoma and beyond, while highlighting challenges in patient selection, resistance mechanisms and equitable access to novel agents.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
Immunotherapy Applications in Oncology publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in immunotherapy applications in oncology across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Immune checkpoint inhibitors: Monoclonal antibodies that block regulatory signals on immune cells to restore anti-tumour activity.
Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and PD-L1: Proteins that downregulate T-cell responses, exploited by tumours to evade immune attack.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cells: T cells engineered to express synthetic receptors that recognise specific tumour antigens.
Predictive biomarker: Biological indicator used to identify patients most likely to respond to a given therapy.
References
- The promise of Immuno-oncology: implications for defining the value of cancer treatment. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2019).
- Estimation of the Percentage of US Patients With Cancer Who Are Eligible for and Respond to Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy Drugs. JAMA Network Open (2019).
- Cancer Immunotherapy Update: FDA-Approved Checkpoint Inhibitors and Companion Diagnostics. The AAPS Journal (2021).
- Pharmacology-based ranking of anti-cancer drugs to guide clinical development of cancer immunotherapy combinations. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2021).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.