Cancer Immunotherapy

The American Cancer Society explains exactly what cancer immunotherapy is and what we should know about it. This is a treatment that uses certain part of a person’s immune system to fight such diseases as cancer. Several ways can be applied, such as:

• Stimulating your own immune system to work harder or marketed to attack cancer cells
• Giving you immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins

There are some types that are sometimes called biologic therapy or biotherapy. Immunotherapy has become an important element in the last few decades for treating some types of cancer. There are also some newer treatments that are being studied that will impact how we can treat cancer in the future.

Immunotherapy can include treatments that will work in a variety of ways, including boosting the body’s immune system in a general way, while others will help to train the immune system to attack the cancer cells specifically. Some types of cancers will respond better with immunotherapy than others. Sometimes it will work well by itself but others seem to work better if they are used with other types of treatments as well.

Our immune system is made up of a collection of organs, special cells, and substances that will help to protect us from infections and some of the other diseases. These substances and immune cells travel through our body to protect it from germs that cause us infections and help to protect us from cancer in some ways.

This system will keep track of all the substances normally found in the body and will raise an alarm if a new substance is found, causing the immune system to attack it. The immune system sees germs containing substances such as certain proteins that are not usually in the human body and attacks them. It can destroy anything containing the foreign substance, such as germs or cancer cells.

Cancer cells are difficult for the immune system to target because cancer starts when cells become altered and grow out of control. Therefore, the immune system doesn’t always recognize cancer cells as foreign.

There are limits on the immune system’s ability to fight cancer on its own as people with healthy immune systems can still develop cancer. Cancer cells are not always seen by the immune system as foreign because the cells aren’t different enough from the normal cells, or the response may not be strong enough to destroy cancer. Researchers have found other ways to help the immune system recognize cancer cells and to strengthen its response to destroy them.

Types of immunotherapy now used for cancer treatments include monoclonal antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, and other, non-specific immunotherapies. These drugs are now used to treat many different types of cancer and newer types are being continuously being studied for use against cancer. Doesn’t it make a lot of sense to strengthen your own natural immune system in lieu of the toxic chemo treatments, if possible?

Dr Fredda Branyon