Cancer Immunotherapy Month 2023
June is Cancer Immunotherapy Month. Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer. Various immunotherapies work differently to achieve this, but the main principle is the same: helping the immune system recognize and kill cancer cells. The immune system already fights cancer cells, but cancer is tricky and can get around these defenses. There are various ways that the immune system can be helped through treatment though. Certain immunotherapies might help the immune system stop or at least slow the growth of cancer cells while others help destroy cancer cells or stop cancer from spreading to other parts of the body.
Two interesting immunotherapy treatments are immune checkpoint inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are man-made antibodies that help the natural antibodies in the body. Antibodies are proteins that help fight infection by attaching to antigens, which are foreign substances that start the immune response. Monoclonal antibodies can be used to either block the activity of normal proteins in cancer cells or boost the immune system by stopping or inhabiting immune checkpoints. Immune checkpoints are usually used by the body to stop the immune system from attacking normal healthy cells. Cancer cells are able to use these checkpoints to hide from the immune system, so inhibitors prevent cancer cells from hiding. Some checkpoint inhibitors you may have heard of include Opdivo, Yervoy, and Keytruda.
Nonspecific immunotherapies are also useful for treating cancer. They are used to help the body destroy cancer cells. They use cytokines, which are proteins that are sent between cells to activate the immune system. One group of cytokines is interferons. Interferons typically respond when pathogens like viruses enter the body. When interferons are made in a laboratory, they can help the immune fight cancer and slow the growth of cancer cells. Interleukins, like interferons, pass messages between cells. They can also be made in a lab to start an immune response to cancer cells.
Oncolytic virus therapy is another type of immunotherapy to be used on cancer. It uses viruses changed in a lab to fight cancer. A genetically modified virus is injected into tumors so when they replicate, cancer cells burst and die. Proteins are then released that attract the immune system to target cells that contain the same proteins, which happen to be cancer cells. There are also cancer vaccines where the body is introduced to an antigen, which helps train the body to destroy that related substance. Finally, there is T-cell therapy. T cells are removed from a patient’s body and augmented in a lab. Proteins are added to help the T cells recognize specific cancer cells. They are then put back into the body to fight and kill cancer cells.
Using the immune system is an innovative way to treat cancer. Despite there being multiple ways to help the immune system fight cancer, the same outcome hopefully occurs: the destruction of cancer cells and the increased survival of patients. It is great to celebrate these therapies because they are revolutionizing how we approach cancer treatment.
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