Immunotherapy

Aside from radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery, there are other forms of treatment for cancer that are less widely used but offer great promise for the future.  Immunotherapy is one of those treatments.

Immunotherapy has become more and more useful in the treatment of cancer throughout the last several decades and “mainstream” doctors are now recognizing it as the fourth option in the treatment of this difficult disease.

What’s Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy, sometimes called biologic therapy, is treatment that uses certain parts of the immune system to fight disease.  This may be achieved by stimulating the immune system to work harder or by introducing an outside source that will achieve the same result.  Immunotherapy can be used by itself but is often performed in conjunction with another type of cancer treatment.

Types of Immunotherapy

People with normal immune systems develop cancer because the immune system may not recognize cancer cells as foreign or the response to the cancer cells may not be strong enough to combat them.  To overcome this, explain the experts at the American Cancer Society, researchers have designed different types of immunotherapies to help the immune system recognize cancer cells and to strengthen the response so that it will destroy the cancer.

• Active immunotherapies – these are used to stimulate the body’s already-existing immune system.  This category includes cancer vaccines.  A cancer vaccine contains cancer cells, parts of cells, or pure antigens. The vaccine increases the immune response against cancer cells that are already present in the body.
• Passive immunotherapies – these treatments make use of immune system components (such as antibodies) created outside of the body.  Scientists can make monoclonal antibodies that react with specific antigens on certain types of cancer cells.

Immunotherapy and Mesothelioma

Scientists are continuing to research the connections between mesothelioma and other lung cancers with successful treatment by immunotherapy.  Progress is slow but steady. 

Recently, for example, a clinical trial showed that adding a monoclonal antibody called Avastin® to standard chemotherapy treatments helped extend the lives of mesothelioma patients by a few months.