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Immunotherapy for Cancer: Role in Early and Advanced Stages
By Raveena M Prakash
Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent times, and one of the most promising advancements happening is immunotherapy. There are traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which primarily target the tumor directly, and immunotherapy stimulates the power of the body’s immune system to fight against cancer.
In this blog, we’ll discover more about immunotherapy for cancer and how it works, and its role in both early and advanced cancer stages, and its limitations and challenges!
What is immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is an effective cancer treatment that uses substances to stimulate or enhance the body’s immune system to identify and destroy various cancer cells. The immune system in our body is designed to recognize any kind of abnormal cells, such as those clearly infected with any type of virus or cancerous cells. These types of cancer cells often develop mechanisms to avoid immune detection.
There are several types of immunotherapies, including:
- Monoclonal antibodies
- Checkpoint inhibitors
- Cancer vaccines
- Adoptive cell therapy
Immunotherapy for early cancer stages
Immunotherapy for cancer is usually associated with the treatments of advanced stages of cancer, but recent cancer research has shown its huge potential in early-stage cancers as well. Many studies suggest that the early stages of cancer often offer a more suitable environment for these treatments due to lower tumor growth and improving the patient’s immune system functions.
1. Adjuvant immunotherapy
There are types of cancer varieties that are prone to recurrence in patients. Getting immunotherapy can play a crucial role in preventing their risk of cancer recurrence.
For example: Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, has been used as an adjuvant treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer after surgery, showing great hope in reducing its relapse rates, which means that it gets worse after getting better or some improvements.
2. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy that often means that the treatment was given before surgery. This treatment approach might help to shrink tumors, which makes them easier to remove and improves the surgical outcomes. These treatments help to enhance the immune system and potentially make the cancer less likely to recur after the surgical procedure.
Preventing recurrence
For some cancers, immunotherapy is often treated in combination with surgery or radiation therapy as a way to eliminate any residual cancer cells that might remain after the tumor is surgically removed.
For some types of cancers, such as melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and bladder cancer, adjuvant immunotherapy given after surgery can reduce the risk of recurrence by stimulating the immune system to eliminate a condition called micro-metastasis, which is the microscopic spread of cancer cells from a primary tumor to other parts of the body that might not be visible through any types of scans.
Immunotherapy for advanced stage cancer
Immunotherapy is an effective treatment that has made a significant impact on the treatment of advanced-stage cancers. These treatments are often used in cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy, radiation therapy. While immunotherapy offers an entirely different approach by focusing on the immune system rather than directly targeting the tumor.
Long-lasting remission
One of the significant aspects of immunotherapy is its efficiency in treating and managing advanced-stage cancer and its potential for providing a remission state to the patients. Apart from any other cancer treatments that often need to be repeated and might only provide temporary relief. While some patients might undergo immunotherapy that has long and durable treatment responses, which lasts for months or years after completing the treatment.
These conditions are often evident in cancers like melanoma, where the use of checkpoint inhibitors has led to patients living for longer periods with no symptoms of cancers.
Targeting treating rare and advanced cancer types
Immunotherapy has significantly transformed cancer treatment that were generally considered difficult to treat, including melanoma, certain types of lymphoma, and non-small cell lung cancer. There are specific drugs including nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) that have provided options for patients with advanced cancer that have other cancer treatments.
Combination of cancer therapies
In advanced cancer stages, oncologists might prefer using combination therapies where the immunotherapy is often combined with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or radiation therapy. These treatments are increasingly considered as a combination of standard cancer therapies.
Combining cancer treatments can often help to overcome disease resistance mechanisms and enhance the overall effectiveness. For example: the combination of checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy has shown positive results in cancers such as small cell lung cancer, often resulting in improved survival rates and fewer side effects when compared to standard chemotherapy treatment alone.
Challenges and limitations of Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a promising cancer treatment but it has some limitations and challenges along with its benefits, treating both early and advanced stage cancers.
1. Not effective for all cancers types
These treatments are not effective for treating all types of cancers. While some cancers such as melanoma, lung cancer, and bladder cancer respond positively to these treatments. While cancers like pancreatic cancers won’t react well to these treatments and have seen limited responses from these treatments. This variability is generally considered as one of the biggest challenges in immunotherapy.
2. Immune-related side effects
Immunotherapies can cause side effects that are different from those associated with traditional cancer treatments. Some of these side effects may include autoimmune reactions, where the immune system begins to attack healthy tissues.
These side effects may include:
- Skin changes (mild rashes, itching and dry skin)
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Endocrine issues
- Fatigue
- Severe inflammation on vital organs like the liver and lungs
Managing these side effects often requires some careful monitoring, while in some cases, it might require discontinuing these treatments and certain medications.
3. High price
The drugs are generally expensive, making them inaccessible for many patients, especially for people who belong to lower financial backgrounds. These treatments are relatively new, and there is still a lot of research and studies that need to be done to learn more about the long-term effectiveness of these treatments. These extra R&D often influence the overall cost of treatments.
The future of Immunotherapy
The field of immunotherapy is continuously evolving, and yet there are challenges to overcome. Cancer research and many studies have suggested that the field of immunotherapy looks so bright for the treatment of cancer.
Currently, there is immunotherapy-related research, and studies are ongoing on ways to improve these treatments' outcomes and reduce side effects,
These may include:
- Improve the overall effectiveness of immunotherapies for treating a variety of cancers.
- Minimizing the complications and risks associated with better patient monitoring and offering more personalized treatments.
- Combining other treatments with immunotherapies to enhance their effectiveness.
- Developing treatments that are affordable and cost-effective to ensure broader accessibility for people from every financial background.
Consult Today
Immunotherapy has transformed the traditional cancer treatment, and it’s offering hope to cancer patients with both early and advanced stages. These treatments improve the immune system to fight cancer, which holds immense promise, especially for cancers that are difficult to treat with standard treatments.
At Oncare, we offer premium- quality cancer treatments, including advanced cancer surgeries at affordable price ranges with an experienced cancer specialist consultation.
If you or any loved ones of yours are diagnosed with cancer, then visit Oncare Cancer Center and book an appointment with our experienced cancer specialist. Get an estimated cost of your cancer treatment today!
Frequently Asked Questions
The common side effects may include:
- Fatigue
- Skin rash, dry skin or itching
- Flu
- Fever, chills, muscle aches
- Nausea
- Diarhea
- Low blood counts
Immunotherapy has been used to treat cancers by using the patient's own immune system, including melanoma, bladder, lung, kidney, liver, head and neck, stomach, colorectal, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.
There are different ways people get immunotherapy, these may include:
- Intravenous immunotherapy, IV infusions
- Oral immunotherapy, pills that you take by mouth
- Topical immunotherapy
- Injection based immunotherapy
- Intravesical immunotherapy
Here are different types of immunotherapy, these may include:
- Checkpoint inhibitors
- Adoptive cell therapy
- Monoclonal antibody
- Cancer vaccines
- Immune system modulators
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