Today, cancer treatment has improved tremendously and has restored quality of life for many patients. One of these advanced treatments is immunotherapy which uses a patient’s own immune system to fight and control cancer cells effectively.
How People Get Cancer?
Generally, everybody can have abnormal cells in their body but our immune system can detect and destroy them before they turn into cancerous cells. Sometimes, cancer cells can grow when our immunity is low or certain abnormal cells evade the detection.
What is Immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is the treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to fight cancer cells or use medicine to boost the immune system to destroy cancer cells. The chance of long-term response is better and it has fewer side effects that chemotherapy.
Several methods of immunotherapy are available, such as T-cell therapy, cancer vaccines and the popular Immune Check Point Inhibitor which uses a drug to boost the patient’s immune system to catch and destroy cancer cells.
The Benefits of Immune Check Point Inhibitor
Treatment with Immune Check Point Inhibitor can lead to a higher chance of a complete cure in patients with certain cancer staging or some patients with metastatic disease can control their disease longer. Furthermore, the side effects of treatment with Immune Check Point Inhibitor are less than treatment with chemotherapy.
Limitations of Immune Check Point Inhibitor
Although Immune Check Point Inhibitor treatment offers hope for cancer patients, it still has limitations such as:
- Cannot treat all types of cancer.
- Biological profiles of certain types of cancer needs to be determined to assess the chance of a response.
Side Effects of Immune Check Point Inhibitor
Treatment with Immune Check Point Inhibitor has some side effects scu ash
- Rashes
- Diarrhea
- Effects on endocrine system such as abnormal function of the thyroid, adrenal gland, etc.
Although Immunotherapy is the latest innovative treatment for cancer which increases the chance of a cure, the most important factor is that patients should follow the advice of medical specialists strictly in order to achieve satisfactory results.
