The exciting new treatment: Immune Therapy

Tumor immunotherapy is now a popular strategy that should be considered part of “the clinician’s toolbox of standard therapies for cancer.” Many diseases result from an irregular immune system. It is an obvious connection between the immune system and autoimmune diseases, allergies and complications of transplants, but in recent years the link between immune dysfunction and many non-immune disease, like cancer, have been noticed. Cancer was previously thought only has the malignant growth of cells. Today we also know cancer is fueled by inflammation and localized immune suppression, which triggered the interest in immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer.

The amount of drugs and treatments for cancer, like radiation, is extraordinary. This approach has been very successful in certain settings, where the radiation will “poison” the cancer cells and cause mass destruction of the tumors. Unfortunately, cancers often return because the drugs cause debilitating target toxicities and even new malignancies. However, recently we have seen signs of a decisive victory over certain cancers, which is personalized cancer immunotherapy. “The past decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of the immune system and our ability to develop safer and more effective immunotherapies.” “The induction and maintenance of immune tolerance has been the holy grail of immunotherapy because it would translate a short course of immunotherapy into long-term benefit while maintaining immune competency,” something radiation cannot do notes scientists at Harvard University.

Below is a picture that explains how this therapy works.