PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dushyant Singh Dahiya
AU  - Asim Kichloo
AU  - Jagmeet Singh
AU  - Michael Albosta
AU  - Manidhar Lekkala
TI  - Current immunotherapy in gastrointestinal malignancies A Review
AID  - 10.1136/jim-2020-001654
DP  - 2021 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Investigative Medicine
PG  - 689--696
VI  - 69
IP  - 3
4099  - http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/69/3/689.short
4100  - http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/69/3/689.full
SO  - J Investig Med2021 Mar 01; 69
AB  - Immunotherapy is an extremely important breakthrough and an exciting new modality of treatment for a wide spectrum of cancers. It is focused around developing agents to stimulate or suppress the immune system, in a specific manner, to fight off a wide spectrum of diseases, particularly cancers. Traditional therapies available for the treatment of cancers include surgical intervention, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of these, which tend to be very non-specific. However, immunotherapy shows a stark difference from conventional therapy, in fact, that it has a high level of specificity for the tumor-specific antigens. The recent success of cancer immunotherapies in clinical trials is slowly revolutionizing the landscape for cancer therapy. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved numerous agents, after clinical trials showed promising results, for the treatment of multiple cancers. The role of immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers has also been very promising, particularly in patients with advanced metastatic disease or malignancies refractory to initial treatment. In this review of literature, we detail and discuss the immunotherapy agents approved for the treatment of GI cancers and glance at the future of immunotherapy for patients with these cancers.