Immunotherapy: Another Weapon Against Cancer By MS
A cancer diagnosis can be devastating to individuals and their families. Upon being diagnosed with cancer, patients may not know what lies ahead, including their prognosis for survival. Battling cancer may not be easy, but cancer researchers continue to look for ways to attack cancer cells and improve the prognosis for men and women diagnosed with the disease. In the United States, cancer death rates have been on the decline since the early 1990s. The National Cancer Institute's most recent Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published in March 2016, states that cancer death rates have decreased by 1.8 percent per year among men, 1.4 percent per year among women, and 2.0 percent per year among children up to 19 years of age through 2013. Numerous factors, including immunotherapy, are contributing to those lower death rates. Understanding immunotherapy can help cancer patients and their families gain a better grasp on treatment.
What is immunotherapy? Immunotherapy is a medical treatment that uses portions of the immune system to fight diseases like cancer. Immune cells and the substances they make travel through the body and protect it from foreign invaders, says the American Cancer Society. Immunotherapy includes a combination of treatments. Some boost the body's immune system in a very general way. Others help train the immune system to attack cancer cells specifically.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors: These drugs rev up the
Types of immunotherapy
immune system, which helps it recognize and attack cancer cells.
Certain cancers respond better to immunotherapy than others. Also, different types of immunotherapy may be more effective than others. The following are some of the types of treatment doctors may prescribe.
Monoclonal antibodies: These are drugs that are designed to bind to specific targets in the body. They can cause an immune response that destroys cancer cells. Other monoclonal antibodies (targeted therapy) mark cancer cells so that the immune system can seek and destroy them.
Adoptive cell transfer: The National Cancer Institute says adoptive cell transfer attempts to boost the natural ability of T cells to fight cancer. T cells are a type of white blood cell and part of the immune system.
Cytokines: These proteins are made by the body's cells and play important roles in the body's normal immune responses. They also influence the immune system's ability to respond to cancer. The two main types of cytokines used to treat cancer are interferons and interleukins. Physicians will discuss various cancer therapies and treatments, including immunotherapy, upon diagnosing a patient with cancer. Side effects to immunotherapy may include pain, swelling, soreness, redness, itchiness and rash. Flu-like symptoms also are possible as the body attacks the cancer cells. Immunotherapy is given orally, topically and intravenously. Patients can discuss how often treatment will be administered and whether immunotherapy offers their best chances for beating the disease. azhealthandliving.com | January 2017
31