Immunotherapy

What is Immunotherapy?

Friday, January 25, 2019

Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses the power of the immune system to attack cancer cells. When a person normally gets sick, the body fights off the illness by targeting only the bad cells that are causing it. But, the body does not typically fight off cancer cells this way on its own because it does not always recognize them as bad cells.

Immunotherapy introduces specific cancer cells to the immune system as the ‘bad cells’. Then the immune system is taught to target and fight the cancer cells and not the normal, healthy cells.

There are many benefits of immunotherapy. It is a more personalized treatment because it is specific to an individual’s unique cells, and it has fewer side effects than traditional forms of cancer treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation, which can affect both healthy cells and cancer cells.