Immunotherapy For Cancer
The correct functioning of the immune system is one of the most important factors for survival against a disease as feared as cancer. This system can detect when cells undergo alterations such as those that lead to cancer, and has the ability to destroy them. Have you heard about immunotherapy?
First of all, let us remember that cancer arises from the modification of the behavior and structure of the cells that make up an organ. Once these changes take place, the body is able to find that cell and initiate a whole host of defense processes.
Thanks to these processes, it makes that and other cells that suffer from the same disorder disappear. The cancer problem begins when cancer cells manage to circumvent the aforementioned defense systems, which allows them to continue to grow excessively.
Fortunately, in recent years, our understanding of the immunology that permeates cancer diseases has advanced surprisingly. With this, new therapeutic modalities such as immunotherapy have emerged. Next, we tell you more about it.
What is immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is a therapeutic strategy used to optimize the immune system, so that cells increase their ability to fight cancer from within our body. Broadly, it works through two mechanisms to fight cancer:
- Stimulating or boosting the immune system so that it is more intelligent and aggressive when it comes to finding and attacking cancer cells.
- Making substances similar to the molecules used by our immune system to help restore or improve its function.
Immunotherapy modalities
We must understand that immunotherapy is a term used to refer to more than one treatment, and that each of these works by taking advantage of different characteristics of the immune system. Within the immunotherapy modalities we can find:
Cancer vaccines
Vaccines are substances that are introduced into the body to initiate a response of our immune system against certain diseases. We are used to thinking that vaccines are given to healthy people to help prevent infection. However, some vaccines can help prevent or treat cancer.
Oncolytic viruses
It is a novel form of treatment that uses genetically modified viruses to infect and kill cancer cells.
Immune checkpoint blocking inhibitors
Cancer contains genetic mutations that allow it to be recognized as a foreign entity in our body. This, in turn, helps the body attack these cells. In some cases, cancer has the ability to block the response of the cells responsible for defending us.
Immune checkpoint blocking inhibitors work by restructuring the response to cancer cells, allowing the body to respond and kill the cancer.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy
In this modality, the T cells of the cancer patient are exposed to a genetically modified virus. This exhibition seeks to teach T cells to detect and attack cancer cells.
Monoclonal antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic proteins that emulate those of the immune system. These antibodies are designed to attack proteins found on the surface of cancer cells. This form of immunotherapy helps the immune system destroy cancer cells.
Side effects of immunotherapy
All treatment brings with it side effects. In the case of immunotherapy, these side effects appear, in large part, due to the stimulation of the immune system to attack. In other words, the immune system attacks healthy cells and organs.
Among the most common side effects we can find:
- Pain.
- Inflammation.
- Redness
- Itch.
- Rashes.
- Fever.
- Shaking chills.
- Dizziness
- Weakness.
- Variations in blood pressure.
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea.
What should we remember about immunotherapy for cancer?
Immunotherapy is an innovative cancer treatment strategy. This aims to use the human body’s ability to detect and attack cancer cells. There are different treatment modalities with immunotherapy, but they all work by promoting restoration and enhancement of our body’s innate defense system.
