How Does Immunotherapy Work?
Immunotherapy is a standard treatment for certain types of cancer that uses body’s immune system to fight and kill cancer cells. From the last few decades, researchers are working on making immunotherapy an important aspect of cancer treatment due to its effectiveness and less possibility of side effects. New treatments involving immunotherapy are under testing and approval phases to work with the immune system in an advanced way to fight cancer at a rapid pace. [3]
- Immunotherapy generally triggers the immune system by the following couple of ways:
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- Stimulating the natural defense of the body’s immune system so that it works smarter and harder to recognize and then kill cancer cells
- Producing certain substances in a lab, which are similar to the immune system’s components and then using these substances in restoring or improving the work of the immune system to fight against cancer cells
Immunotherapy might solely work effectively in certain types of cancer, but in other types it works better in a combination with other cancer treatments like radiation therapy, medications, or chemotherapy. In addition, immunotherapy might work best for certain types of cancer than for other types. The natural defense system of the body works along with a couple of organs, substances, and special cells that protect the body from diseases and some other infections. Immune system substances and the specialized cells travel throughout the body to protect the body from foreign invaders that might cause infection. The immune system also helps in protecting the body from the development of cancer in some ways.
Normally, the immune system manages to keep up with all of the substances present in the body. in case of the presence of any foreign invader or substance that the immune system does not recognize rings the alarm thus signaling the immune system to invade it. While the immune system goes through a tough time to target the cancer cells because these cells somehow manage to hide and dodge the immune system. The cancer cells have certain proteins on their surface which block the signals to the immune system and thus the cancer cells remain out of the immune system radar. Another reason for the immune system’s failure to defend the body against cancer is that the cancer develops in normal and healthy cells so the immune system does not always detect their presence as foreign particles.
Cancer begins with the altering of the healthy and normal cells in the body and then they grow in an abnormal manner spreading throughout the body. it is quite clear that the immune system faces certain limitations to fight cancer all alone because it is very common in people with healthy immune systems to develop cancer. Immunotherapy helps the body’s immune system to overcome the limitations to fight cancer to some extent by keeping in check the following aspects:
Immunotherapy makes the immune system to detect the cancer cells that are not dissimilar enough from normal body cells and then attack them
Sometimes the immune system is quite weak to fight all the cancer cells so immunotherapy makes the immune response strong enough to avenge all the cancer cells possible after recognizing them
Immunotherapy contains certain inhibitors and other substances that also detect the cancer cells, which are releasing particles to stay out from the immune system’s radar