Cancer is a disease that no one wants, not even their adversary. It takes one down the path of sleepless nights, searching on different sites about the treatments, side effects, and regular visits to the doctor.
Over time, the patients and their families get to know the terms related to cancer treatment. This blog aims to answer questions you may have about the term “immunotherapy”, how it’s done, where to take treatment and its supposed side effects. Remember one thing– each body is different, so the effects will also be different.
What is “Immunotherapy?”
Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that makes use of the patient’s immune system. Immunotherapy can alter or enhance the immune system’s functioning to help it identify and combat cancer cells.
It makes use of chemicals produced by the body or in a lab to strengthen the immune system and assist the body in locating and eliminating cancer cells.
Several forms of cancer can be treated using immunotherapy treatment. They may use it alone or together with other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy.
New immunotherapy therapies are being developed, evaluated, and approved at a very rapid rate. New immune system-related technologies are also being developed at break-neck speed!
The need for Immunotherapy
The immune system monitors all the chemicals that are typically present in the body. The immune system attacks every new substance that it doesn’t identify because it sets up an alarm.
However, it is more difficult for the immune system to target cancer cells. This is because cancer begins when normal cells undergo modification or alteration and begin to proliferate uncontrollably. The immune system occasionally fails to identify cancer cells as foreign because they originate from normal cells.
What makes Immunotherapy unique?
Since Immunotherapy works on developing the strength of the immune system, it is more targeted. In some cases, it has shown fewer side effects as compared to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Immunotherapy treatment in a way provides the immune system with an “armor” to defend itself against the attacks.
How does Immunotherapy work?
Immunotherapy treatment works in varied ways, but its base is the same. It focuses on finding a factor that differentiates the bad cells and good cells and then boosts the immune system to combat said mutation/difference.
Several scenarios are being tested, some of which are:
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Checkpoint Inhibitors
We know that the immune system is responsible for fighting against any foreign entity which may cause harm to the body. The immune system does this by using the checkpoint protein on the cells. These “checkpoints” acts as an on-off switch for the immune system.
So, what Checkpoint Inhibitors do is that these drugs/medicines take the brakes off of the immune system so that it can work speedily and recognize foreign (cancer) cells.
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Vaccines
The purpose of vaccines is to stimulate the body’s immune system to fight off specific diseases. It typically administers them to healthy individuals to fight off infections. However, some vaccines can either treat or prevent cancer.
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T-Cell Therapy
Immune cells, called T cells, work to ward off infection. In T-cell therapy, the physician draws T cells from the patient’s blood. The cells are then supplemented in a lab with particular proteins known as receptors. T cells can identify cancer cells with the help of the receptor. Then the altered T cells are reintroduced to the body. They locate and eliminate cancer cells once they arrive. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is the name for this particular treatment.
CART T-Cell therapy is used in the treatment of various blood cancers. Research is still going on this therapy and other means of modifying T cells to treat cancer.
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Immune cell Stimulation and Suppression
In immunotherapy treatment, a certain molecule is either injected or administered orally, which stimulates the immune system. It causes the immune cells to gather, multiply, find and attack the invading foreign particle.
In the case of allergy immunotherapy, this helps in suppressing the abnormal immune response to the allergens.
Where to get immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is a critical part, as cancer researchers continue to explore new cancer treatments. The examples shown above do not cover all types of immunotherapy treatments.
Immunotherapy is a step toward treating cancer with a holistic approach. The side effects of it are less compared to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. It’s more targeted. It’s painless and safe when compared with its counterpart treatments.
There are many immunotherapy treatment centers, Body Revival is one of the top centers. It’s regarded as India’s no.1 center for all metastatic cancer management and amongst the finest clinics for preventive oncology without surgery.
Why should you choose Body Revival?
Since its start, Body Revival has been committed to excellence. To provide the best possible care to the patients and help them.
Some of the key points are:
- Target Therapy: Uses renowned target therapy to distinguish between good and cancer cells, thus preventing the hampering of normal body function.
- Affordable: “Affordable health care” has always been our motto.
- High Success Rate: Increase the efficiency in many chemotherapy resistance cases.
Book a demo today to know more about how Body Revival can help you!