A collection of organs, special cells, and substances that help protect us from infections and various diseases is our immune system. These cells travel across our body to secure us from germ-causing infections and diseases and keep a check on the substances found in the body. In the presence of an alien substance that it tracks, it alarms the immune system to prepare for the attack.

Fortunately, the immune response is capable of destroying any foreign substance, such as germs or cancer cells. However, it has a difficult time targeting cancer cells because it causes healthy cells to alter them & grow out of control, which is where immunotherapy comes in. Immunotherapy cancer is also called immuno-oncology, a type of cancer treatment that employs the body’s immune system to block, dominate, and eliminate cancer as it can help with:

● Coach the immune system to acknowledge and strike specific cancer cells.

● Amplify the performance of immune cells to eradicate cancer

● Provide additional accessories to improve the immune response

Immunotherapy is an evolving promise for cancer treatment engaging the immune system to fight the cancer internally. The immune system contains organs, antibodies, and cells that work together to fight disease and infections, namely:

● B-cell lymphocytes: White blood cells to produce antibodies for fighting infections.

● T-cell lymphocytes: A specialized form of White blood cell targeting diseased cells and alerting other cells for the presence of a pathogen.

● Dendritic cells: These cells converse with T-cells stimulating immune responses.

● Granulocytes: A mixture of neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils that fight infections.

After being alerted by the lymphocytes, the Immune cells manufacture cytokines, a protein molecule acting on other cells to instigate the immune response for striking diseases & make it effortless for the system to recognize infected cells. It helps treat different types of cancers like brain tumor, cervical, breast, kidney, prostate, skin cancers or leukemia, and more.

The common known types of immunotherapies are:

● Adoptive cell therapy: In this therapy, the diseased immune cell is removed, redesigned, and then reinstated in the body to modify their immune response which then seeks to destroy cancer cells.

● Cancer vaccines: Just like any other vaccine, they stimulate an immune response in the body to protect it against diseases. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is used for the prevention from cervical, anal, throat, and penile cancers while the hepatitis B vaccine prevents liver cancer.

● Immunomodulators: They change the body’s biological responses by reviving the immune system’s ability to track and kill cancer cells. The treatments in this use are checkpoint inhibitors, lymphokines, interferon, and interleukins.

● Monoclonal antibodies: Lab engineered, these proteins strike particular parts of cancer cells by delivering drugs, toxins, or radioactive material directly into the tumors.

● Oncolytic viruses: This is the kind of modified virus specially designed to attack infected cells.

Why immunotherapy

After years of testing and studying, immunotherapies have been accepted in the United States to treat cancers and are prescribed by oncologists. Although immunotherapy may not work for every patient and certain types may be associated with severe but manageable side effects, studies show most patients are likely to gain from this treatment, and has frequently helped prolong the lifespan of many patients.

It is still being researched and holds the potential to become more accurate, personalized, effective & with lesser side effects once fully understood.

Obviously, there are limitations in our immune system’s ability to fight cancer on its own because sometimes the immune system doesn’t see or recognize the cancer cells as foreign as they can mimic normal cells.

To address this, researchers have come up with methods to strengthen the immune system & recognize cancer cells to destroy them. Consequently, our body is actually getting rid of cancer itself, with some help from science.

Benefits of Immunotherapy

1. Much like the entire human body, the immune system is also very particular, so it can specifically target cancer cells while sparing other healthy cells.

2. The immune system is capable of adapting consistently, just like cancer cells, so if a tumor goes undetected, an immune system re-evaluates and attacks immediately.

3. The immune system has a memory that allows it to remember so it can target and eradicate if cancer returns.

Conclusion- Immunotherapy is a boon and has definitely opened up great possibilities and prolonged life spans with minimal side effects for cancer patients. Conclusively, it requires more understanding and research and may eventually prove to be the new ray of hope for cancer patients.