Traditionally, we have been treating cancer by attacking it with chemotherapy, radiation, or by removing it with surgery. The “cut, burn and poison” techniques are estimated to treat half of the cases diagnosed with cancer, but what about the other half? For a very long time, physicians have been trying to kill mutating versions of our own cells, trying to kill the bad ones, sparing the good ones, and making ourselves sick in the process.
But now there’s a new and effective approach to treat cancer- one that acts on the patient’s immune system, instead of cancer.
Our immune system is the most effective natural defence against disease. Anything that’s not supposed to be in the body, gets destroyed by the immune system. Cells of the immune system are on constant patrol to attack and destroy any invaders that make us sick, including cells that mutate to develop into cancer.
How does the cancer-killing process take place?
The immune cells such as T cells and Dendritic cells (the key antigen-presenting cells) defend and protect the body.
The Dendritic cells patrol the body looking for cancer cells and other organisms causing diseases. (They act as informer cells). The T cells, on the other hand, are the soldiers of the immune system that actually do the cancer-killing process.
When the Dendritic cell finds a suspicious cell, it sends a specific signal to the T cell to multiply and attack the suspicious cell. That’s how the cancer-killing process takes place.
What is cancer immunotherapy, the new breakthrough in science?
Cancer immunotherapy is an approach to defeat cancer, by unmasking cancer, unleashing the power of the immune system and starting the fight, again. Cancer immunotherapy is often understood as a recent discovery when in actuality it dates back to antiquity. Despite its long history, it has blossomed into fruition only in recent years with the advances of multiple forms of treatment, including cancer vaccines, adoptive cell transfer, chimeric antigen (CAR) T cell, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. The good part is that our immune system has an amazing capacity for remembering disease-causing agents so immunotherapy promises a unique opportunity to treat cancer successfully and achieve prolonged remission.
The question is why doesn't the immune system fight cancer already?
The answer is, it does try to kill cancer, but cancer evades the immune responses. In other words, cancer escapes or hides from the immune system shuts down the defences and avoids the fight.
Traditionally, we have been treating cancer by attacking it with chemotherapy, radiation, or by removing it with surgery. The “cut, burn and poison” techniques are estimated to treat half of the cases diagnosed with cancer, but what about the other half? For a very long time, physicians have been trying to kill mutating versions of our own cells, trying to kill the bad ones, sparing the good ones, and making ourselves sick in the process.
But now there’s a new and effective approach to treat cancer- one that acts on the patient’s immune system, instead of cancer.
Our immune system is the most effective natural defence against disease. Anything that’s not supposed to be in the body, gets destroyed by the immune system. Cells of the immune system are on constant patrol to attack and destroy any invaders that make us sick, including cells that mutate to develop into cancer.
How does the cancer-killing process take place?
The immune cells such as T cells and Dendritic cells (the key antigen-presenting cells) defend and protect the body.
The Dendritic cells patrol the body looking for cancer cells and other organisms causing diseases. (They act as informer cells). The T cells, on the other hand, are the soldiers of the immune system that actually do the cancer-killing process.
When the Dendritic cell finds a suspicious cell, it sends a specific signal to the T cell to multiply and attack the suspicious cell. That’s how the cancer-killing process takes place.
The question is why doesn't the immune system fight cancer already?
The answer is, it does try to kill cancer, but cancer evades the immune responses. In other words, cancer escapes or hides from the immune system shuts down the defences and avoids the fight.
What is cancer immunotherapy, the new breakthrough in science?
Cancer immunotherapy is an approach to defeat cancer, by unmasking cancer, unleashing the power of the immune system and starting the fight, again. Cancer immunotherapy is often understood as a recent discovery when in actuality it dates back to antiquity. Despite its long history, it has blossomed into fruition only in recent years with the advances of multiple forms of treatment, including cancer vaccines, adoptive cell transfer, chimeric antigen (CAR) T cell, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. The good part is that our immune system has an amazing capacity for remembering disease-causing agents so immunotherapy promises a unique opportunity to treat cancer successfully and achieve prolonged remission.
