To determine the effectiveness of any antitumor agent simple and sensitive end point is necessary. For immunotherapy which acts by stimulating body?s own defense system an accurate and meaningful end point is difficult to find. Most immune effector mechanisms act by inducing apoptosis of cancer cells. When patients with colorectal cancer were immunized with an antibody against a specific antigen of the cancer cells, significant increase of apoptotic death in the tumor was observed within a few weeks after immunization. This technique can be used to screen efficient immunotherapeutic agents that increase apoptosis in primary tumors.
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