Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that employs your body’s immune system to find and destroy cancer
cells. Your immune system identifies and destroys intruders that include cancerous cells. Immunotherapy
boosts your immune system so it can do more to find and kill cancer cells.
What cancers does immunotherapy treat?
Doctor consider immunotherapy a first-line or initial treatment for numerous sorts of metastatic
cancer, or cancer that's spread. They may combine immunotherapy with chemotherapy, targeted therapy or
other cancer medications. Doctors utilize different types of immunotherapy to treat numerous sorts of
cancer. Each immunotherapy type uses different elements of immune system.
Types of cancer immunotherapy
There are several types of immunotherapy utilized to treat cancer.
- Checkpoint inhibitors: These drugs take the brakes off the immune system, which aids in
recognizing and attack cancer cells.
- Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment: This treatment takes a few T-cells from a
patient's blood, blends them with a special virus that creates the T-cells learn how to attach to
tumor cells, and after that gives the cells back to the patient so they can find, connect to, and kill
the cancer.
- Cytokines: This treatment employs cytokines (small proteins that carry messages between
cells) in stimulating the immune cells to attack cancer.
- Immunomodulators: This group of drugs boosts parts of the immune system to treat certain
types of cancer.
- Cancer immunizations: Immunizations are substances put into the body to begin an immune
response against certain illnesses. We usually think of them as being given to healthy people to
assist in preventing infections. But a few immunizations can offer assistance to prevent or treat
cancer.
- Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs or MoAbs): These are man-made versions of immune system proteins.
mAbs can be useful in treating cancer since they can be designed to attack a particular part of a
cancer cell.
- Oncolytic viruses: This treatment employs viruses that have been modified in a lab to infect
and kill certain tumor cells.
It's vital to note that the effectiveness of immunotherapy can vary from person to person, and not all
patients will react within the same way. Also, research is focused on enhancing the understanding of the
immune system and creating new and more targeted immunotherapies. If you or somebody you know is
considering immunotherapy, it's vital to consult with a doctor to decide the most suitable treatment
based on the particular condition.