In this review article, we highlight the history of cancer immunotherapy; different types of cancer diseases, different stage of cancers, gene mutations are involved in cancer pathogenesis as well as additional information has been obtained that can be useful for early diagnosis and proper treatment. We also highlight the current pitfalls and limitations of cancer checkpoint immunotherapy and how novel research in the fields of personalized cancer vaccines, autoimmunity, the microbiome, the tumour microenvironment, and metabolomics is aiming to solve those challenges. This review also gives an overview of the many discoveries and the progression of the use of some thalidomide analogues especially naphthalimides as anticancer agents and their applications to date; focusing mainly on mono-, bis-naphthalimide based structures, and their various derivatives (e.g. amines, amino acids, heterocyclic systems).