Active immunotherapy

Active immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy that aims to stimulate the host's immune system or a specific immune response to a disease or pathogen and is most commonly used in cancer treatments.^[1][2] Active immunotherapy is also used for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion disease, and multiple sclerosis.^[3] Active immunotherapies induce an immune response through direct immune system stimulation, while immunotherapies that administer antibodies directly to the system are classified as passive immunotherapies.^[4] Active immunotherapies can elicit generic and specific immune responses depending on the goal of the treatment.^[5] The categories of active immunotherapy divide into:

• Non-specific active immunotherapy: generating a general immune system response using cytokines and other cell signaling molecules.^[6]
• Specific active immunotherapy: the generation of cell-mediated and antibody immune responses focused on specific antigens expressed by the cancer cells, typically using a vaccine platform.^[5]

Active immunotherapies fall under the category of activation immunotherapies, which is a subset of immunotherapies that activate the immune system as opposed immunotherapies that suppress the immune system.