Immunotherapy for cancer uses your body’s immune system to find and destroy cancerous cells. There are several different immunotherapy types, but all immunotherapy works by training your immune system so it can do more to fight cancer. Immunotherapy may help some people with cancer to live longer.
Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses your body’s immune system to find and destroy cancer cells. Your immune system identifies and destroys intruders, including cancerous cells. Immunotherapy boosts your immune system so it can do more to find and kill cancer cells.
Immunotherapy for cancer is a very effective treatment that may help some people with cancer live longer. Medical researchers are developing new immunotherapy drugs to treat more types of cancer.
Your immune system’s everyday job is to protect your body from intruders, from allergens and viruses to damaged cells that could become cancerous. It has special cells that constantly patrol your body for intruders. When they find a damaged or cancerous cell, they destroy it. That keeps cancerous tumors from growing and spreading. But cancer is a moving target. Cancerous cells constantly look for ways to dodge immune system defenses. Immunotherapy works by:
Healthcare providers consider immunotherapy a first-line or initial treatment for many types of metastatic cancer, or cancer that’s spread. They may combine immunotherapy with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or other cancer treatments. Providers use different types of immunotherapy to treat many kinds of cancer. Each immunotherapy type uses different elements of your immune system.
Immunotherapy types include:
Your immune system is a powerful defense system — sometimes too powerful. Your body has checkpoints to keep your immune system from overreacting to intruders and damaging healthy cells.
For example, your bone marrow makes white blood cells called T lymphocytes, or T cells. T cells protect your body from infection and tackle cancer cells. Immune checkpoints connect with proteins on the surface of T cells.
Checkpoint proteins and other proteins manage the flow of signals to T cells, telling the cells when to turn off and on. (Think traffic monitors that manage traffic flow by switching traffic lights off and on.) T cells turn on to kill cancerous cells. They turn off so they don’t damage normal cells.
Checkpoint inhibitors are immunotherapy drugs that work by breaking the connection between the checkpoint proteins and other proteins. Breaking the connection keeps protein cells from telling T cells to turn off. That way, T cells keep on killing cancerous cells.
Healthcare providers typically use checkpoint inhibitors to treat many different types of cancer. In general, providers use checkpoint inhibitors to treat advanced cancer, cancer that’s spread, cancer that can’t be treated with surgery, or cancer that hasn’t responded to other treatments. They may combine checkpoint inhibitor drugs with other treatments, including chemotherapy or targeted therapy. The list below is expected to grow as medical researchers find ways to use immunotherapy to treat many more kinds of cancer:
This treatment improves your immune system’s ability to destroy cancerous cells. Healthcare providers take your immune cells and grow them in a laboratory. Once your cells have grown, providers insert the cells back into your body so they can kill cancerous cells. CAR T-cell therapy and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy are the two main types of T-cell transfer therapy.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy works by turning your T lymphocytes, or T cells, into more efficient cancer-fighting machines. Your T cells are white blood cells in your immune system. Your immune system monitors your body for intruders, such as cancerous cells, by tracking proteins called antigens that are located on the surface of intruder cells. Your immune system relies on T cells to track and kill intruders.
Your T cells have their own proteins called receptors. Receptors are like the anti-virus software on your computer. When your T cell security team senses intruder antigens, they use their receptors to catch and block the intruders. More than that, your T cells can kill the intruders. But antigens have their own form of protection. They can disguise themselves to hide from your T cells. CAR T-cell therapy ensures your T cells aren’t fooled by antigens in disguise.
CAR T-cell therapy treats certain blood cancers, including some types of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Medical researchers are investigating CAR T-cell therapy as a way to treat breast cancer and brain cancer.
People receive immunotherapy through an intravenous (IV) infusion. You may receive immunotherapy daily, weekly, monthly, or in a cycle. With cyclic immunotherapy, you take a rest period after treatment. The break gives your body time to produce healthy cells. Treatment length depends on:
Immunotherapy may be an effective treatment for cancers that haven’t responded to traditional treatment or that have come back after traditional treatment.
Immunotherapy doesn’t work on all kinds of cancer and it may not work for every person who receives treatment. Most immunotherapy treatments cause side effects. If your healthcare provider recommends immunotherapy, they’ll explain specific treatment side effects and ways they’ll help you manage those side effects.
No, but immunotherapy can control cancer so people can live longer. In some cases, it slows down cancer’s growth. In other cases, it may shrink cancerous tumors. Unfortunately, not everyone who receives immunotherapy responds to treatment.
Immunotherapy is a relatively new area of focus for cancer treatment. You may not know much about the treatment. If immunotherapy is an option for you, you may have the following questions for your healthcare provider:
Most of the time, immunotherapy side effects are mild, but some side effects require immediate medical treatment. You should contact your healthcare provider any time you have immunotherapy side effects that are more severe than usual.
