Cancer Treatment Immunotherapy

A key factor in the development of tumors is the ability of cancerous cells to evade recognition from the bodies’ natural defense against cancer, the immune system. Immunotherapies effectively block the pathways that shield cancerous cells from being identified, and thus the promote the bodies own anti-tumor response. However, one challenge to immunotherapy has been its combination with chemotherapy, the mainstay of cancer treatment. While chemotherapy is extremely effective in stopping the rapid division of cancerous cells, its toxic immunosuppressive side-effect make it difficult to combine with

3.) The mayo clinic article on monoclonal antibody drugs for cancer seems to be a conveniently recent development and an answer to my query in the previous paragraph. Basically they are laboratory-produced molecules that are engineered to attach themselves to cancer-affected areas of the body, and make them more visible to the body’s immune system. They also block growth signals in the cancer cells, preventing them from developing new ways to improve blood flow to them. They even have the ability to deliver radioactive and chemotherapy directly to cancer cells without having to deal with daylong chemo sessions or high-dose beam radiation. This relates to Gladwells’ approach because researchers definitely thought outside the box to come up with it. A lot of todays’ medicine treats the symptoms and or gets the body to do most of the work. With cancer, doctors usually try to get the medicine to do the work. By unveiling the

Cancer immunotheraphy is a concept that has been around for centuries. Back in the 1800s, a bone surgeon named William Coley injected his patients with a vaccine consisting of killed bacteria hoping it would stimulate the body's defense system. During the 1990s, physicians treated people with cancer with a cytokine treatment. This treatment involved high amounts of interleuken-2 (IL-2) and interferon-γ (IFNγ), also known as inflammatory cytokines. These inflammatory cytokines were released by white blood cells that fight infection (T cells). However, this treatment can have very dangerous side effects such as vascular leakage and kidney damage, but some people that received the cytokine treatment have lived for decades. In the year of 1996,

There are at least 20 immunotherapy clinical trials and studies underway. One of these is at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. Scientists there are now able to grow cancer cells in a lab that they can program for destruction by patients’ immune systems. Nine patients with mesothelioma will initially be treated by this method. If the treatment is successful, more patients will be eligible for treatment next year.

There is only one particular antibody to kill pathogen causing the sickness or infection. Similar to how we have learned in science class, that each enzyme can only digest one type of substrate. For instance, lactase can only digests lactose because each substrate requires a specific active site. There is no specific antibody to fight cancer, since the body does not recognize cancer as an invader or a foreign substance, as the body does for other pathogens, since the cancer cells are just mutations of healthy cells already in our immune system.

Fusi, A., & Dalgleish, A. (2017). The importance for immunoregulation for long-term cancer control. Future Oncology (London, England), 13(18), 1619-1632. doi:10.2217/fon-2017- 0085 [doi]

Could our own immune system perform a poorer job of eliminating cancerous tumors compared to a foreign virus? Even though we can theoretically give our immune system the necessary capabilities to specifically target cancer cells, practically we cannot modify the immune system to carry out this function efficiently. Cancer immunotherapy is a treatment where the body’s immune system is used to fight cancer. To achieve this, the cells of the immune system are made to recognize the cancer cells and attack them, thus eliminating the tumor. However, unfortunately our body’s immune system is not perfect and can let some cancer cells slip through its fingers. Therefore, we need a more efficient

Our immune systems are amazing in their own right, but occasionally they need some help overcoming a few obstacles which is where vaccinations come in handy. A few people believe that vaccinations are “unnatural”. Well this is partially true in that the vaccine is not naturally occurring, but your immune system responds to the vaccine in the same way it would respond to obtaining the illness normally. When a vaccine is introduced into your body, the immune system doesn’t recognize it as part of the cells normally present. Your immune system then sends cells to target and destroy the invading agent within the vaccine. Thanks to special memory cells within the immune system, the next time your body encounters this same invader it will recognize it and send an army to fight it off. And thus the vaccine artificially recreated immunity to specific diseases without the usual harmful side effects of the full blown disease.

With that, people question, what am I injection into my body with a cancer vaccine? Research states the cancer vaccine targets the cancerous cells themselves and the vaccine contains pieces of the cancerous cell and your immune system will treat the cancer cells similarly to how the flu vaccine attacks the flu. The immune system will release leukocytes from the immune system to aggressively fight off the unwanted disease. Another question arises from this, how are we going to get cancer cells to put in the vaccine? “ Cancer cells are sly and they have a way of making themselves so the body does not know it is dangerous”, states

Immunotherapy is a form of medical treatment intended to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease. This can be by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while those that reduce or suppress immune response are suppression immunotherapies. Active immunotherapy has been effective against agents that normally cause acute self-limiting infectious disease. However, a more effective immunotherapy for chronic infectious diseases or cancer requires the use of appropriate target antigens; the

The last fifteen years have seen a reemergence of interest in cancer immunosurveillance and a broadening of this concept into one termed cancer immunoediting. The latter, supported by strong experimental data derived from murine tumor models and provocative correlative data obtained by studying human cancer, holds that the immune system not only protects the host against development of primary nonviral cancers but also sculpts tumor immunogenicity. Cancer immunoediting is a process consisting of three phases: elimination (i.e., cancer immunosurveillance), equilibrium, and escape. Herein, we summarize the data supporting the existence of each of the three cancer immunoediting phases. The full understanding of the immunobiology of cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting will hopefully stimulate development of more effective immunotherapeutic approaches to control and/or eliminate human cancers.

Cancer is a crucial health concern around the world. Despite the major developments in conventional treatments, radiation, chemotherapy and surgical therapies, still many cancer cell lines, such as lung cancer, have a critically low 5-year survival rate. The current conventional approach of cancer treatment is composed of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, which considered the basic steps for any cancer patient. However, the majority of these therapeutic approaches are associated with rigorous side effects and overall prognosis remains poor with high fatality rate. For this reason, in addition to the conventional treatment methods, a new trend to search the alternative therapies to increase treatment efficiency is utilized. Annona Muricata is a plant that shows a promising aspects in preventing cancer from spreading. This research focused on the cancer disease, how it can be treated as well as the risks of using a given treatment. Moreover, the study also looked at the symptoms of the disease and the different types of cancer. In addition, this research revealed the role of Annona Muricata in cancer treatment and prevention while highlighting the potential risks of the plant.

Right now your immune system is at work. Think about it, millions of cells right now are at work inside you. It’s a complex system constantly on that keeps you healthy and at your fullest. This system is made of many organs, cell, tissues and other structures (that work very precisely with each other). Before you learn how the system works, you need to know how about what it defends against.

There are certain types of treatments that are associated with monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibody therapy uses antibodies to bind to specific cells or proteins in order to stimulate one’s immune system in order to attack those specific cells. It can be used for autoimmune diseases by inhibiting human immunoglobulin or attaching to activated T-cells and preventing kidney transplant rejections. One major use for monoclonal antibodies is for cancer treatment, specifically lung cancer. A simple definition for the monoclonal antibodies’ role in cancer treatment is that it binds only to cancer cell-specific antigens in order to activate an immunological response

Our immune system is the second most complex system in our body. It is made up of organs, cells and proteins that work together to protect our bodies from harmful bacteria, viruses or other microorganisms that can cause diseases. Usually we don’t notice our immune system defending us against pathogens, but if the pathogen (harmful microorganism) is aggressive or if our body hasn’t ever come into contact with it, we can get sick. The jobs of our immune system are to recognise pathogens, as well as neutralise and remove them from our body. Our immune system also has to fight our own cells if they have changed due to an illness, for example, cancer. (1)