Immunotherapy: A new hope for cancer patients for their treatments.

Immunotherapy is also known as biotherapy. It is a treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer through stimulating your own immune system and giving you immune system components.

Cancer immunotherapy is an important phenomenon to enhance the immune system to fight against cancer. The main premise is stimulating the immune system to attack the malignant tumour cells that are responsible for the disease. In late 1800s, Dr William Coley first noted that getting an infection after surgery seemed to help some cancer patients. He used Coley toxins for the treatment of those cancer patients who infected with certain kinds of bacteria.

 

The main types of immunotherapy involve monoclonal antibody, cancer vaccines and non-specific immune therapy. Monoclonal antibody has subtypes, including naked and conjugated, in which naked monoclonal antibody has further subtypes including radiolabelled, chemolabelled and immunotoxin. Alemtuzamab is naked approved for chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment, Ibritumomab is radiolabeblled approved for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Brentuximabvedotin is chemolabelled approved for treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Cancer vaccines involving Dendritic cell vaccines (Special immune cells in the body that help the immune system recognize cancer cells), Tumour cell vaccines (Made from actual cancer cells that have been removed during surgery), DNA vaccines (Vectors can be given bits of DNA which is code for protein antigens. At the same time the vectors are then injected into the body, with cells that DNA might be taken up and can instruct them to make specific antigens) and Antigen vaccines (These vaccines boost the immune system by using only one antigen rather than whole tumour cells). Non specific immune therapy has also subtypes, including cytokines and interleukin.

Later research in monoclonal antibodies by United States doctors from the Clinical Research Division led by Cassian Yee by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in June 2008 treated a skin cancer patient by using immune cells cloned from his own immune system which were then re-injected into him. In topical immunotherapy, Imiquimod that is immune enhancement cream, which is an interferon producer causing the patient’s own killer T cells to destroy basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma. In natural products, mushrooms like Agaricussubrufescens that is able to stimulate the immune system.

GAP has the advanced technology and an expert team for immune therapy, which helps the cancer patients in planning their treatment strategy.

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