Immunotherapy Efforts at Comprehensive Cancer Centers
As treatments in medicine advance, patients become interested in learning more about these options and how they may help them. Immunotherapy is one of the most exciting new treatment options in oncology, and Comprehensive Cancer Centers is at the forefront in helping treat patients with immunotherapy, while advancing the science behind the treatment through clinical research.
The physicians and clinicians at Comprehensive Cancer Centers use immunotherapy in treatment to encourage the body’s own immune system to help fight cancer. This is done by stimulating a patient’s immune system to work harder or smarter to attack cancer cells. The treatment also includes giving the immune system components, such as man-made immune system proteins to assist in the process.
“Immunotherapy is the most recent ‘superstar’ offering meaningful advances in the field of cancer treatment,” said Dr. Fadi Braiteh, a medical oncologist and research scientist at Comprehensive Cancer Centers. “Although the success story of immunotherapy is still unfolding, the preliminary results offer profound anti-cancer responses, and some terminal cancer patients are now cancer free, with a hope of a definitive cure being a reachable reality.”
While the science of immunotherapy has been around for decades, many patients now are becoming aware of its potential and want to learn more. The following details types of immunotherapy, and how they are designed to work:
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Checkpoint Inhibitors
These are drugs that help the immune system respond more strongly to tumors. These drugs work by releasing brakes that keep T cells (a type of white blood cell and part of the immune system) from killing cancer cells. These drugs do not target a tumor directly, but rather they interfere with the ability of cancer cells to avoid immune system attack.
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Adoptive Cell Transfer
This is a treatment that attempts to boost the natural ability of T cells to fight cancer. In this treatment, T cells are taken from a patient’s tumor. The most active cells against a patient’s cancer are grown in large batches in a laboratory. This process can take two to eight weeks and during that time patients may have other treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. When the T cells are harvested, they are reintroduced into a patient’s body.
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Monoclonal Antibodies
The antibodies are also known as therapeutic antibodies, which are immune system proteins also created in a laboratory. These antibodies are designed to attach to specific targets found on cancer cells. Some monoclonal antibodies mark cancer cells so that they will be better seen and destroyed by the immune system. Other monoclonal antibodies directly stop cancer cells from growing or cause them to self-destruct. Still others carry toxins to cancer cells. Because therapeutic monoclonal antibodies recognize specific proteins on cancer cells, they are also considered targeted therapies.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers Can Help
Physicians at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada provide a variety of treatment options including: immunotherapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, breast surgery and clinical research for the treatment of cancer. For a complete list of clinical research studies currently being conducted at Comprehensive, please click here. To schedule an appointment with the team at Comprehensive, please call 702-952-3350.
The content is this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.