Cancer is a genetic disorder caused by long-term effects of multiple factors, and its occurrence is mainly related to various factors such as physical, chemical, carcinogenic substances, genetics, endocrine disorders, etc. that affect the body. The clinical manifestations of cancer patients are related to factors such as tumor nature, specific location, and growth rate. There are no significant symptoms in the early stages of the disease, but as the tumor grows, various clinical symptoms such as lumps, pain, bleeding, fever, weakness, anemia, and weight loss may occur. There are various treatment methods for cancer, including traditional surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, as well as new methods such as tumor immunotherapy, which have good application prospects in clinical practice. However, many people are not familiar with this treatment method. Today, we will introduce tumor immunotherapy to you.
1、 What is tumor immunotherapy? Tumor immunotherapy is a treatment method that eliminates cancer by enhancing the function of immune cells in the body. Everyone has their own immune system, some are born with innate immunity, and some are acquired immunity. In general, the human immune system can recognize and eliminate tumor cells. But for cancer patients, their immune system is suppressed, and tumor immunotherapy has the effect of enhancing the function of human immune cells, effectively identifying and clearing tumor cells, and strengthening the body's anti-tumor ability. Tumor immunotherapy can help the immune system recognize and attack specific cancer cells, help eliminate cancer, provide additional substances to the body, and enhance the body's immune response.
2、 What types of cancer can tumor immunotherapy fight against
Tumor immunotherapy can fight against more than 20 kinds of cancer, including bladder cancer cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, head and neck cancer, skin cancer, sarcoma, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, multiple myeloma, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc.
3、 Types of tumor immunotherapy
Tumor immunotherapy can be divided into five categories: targeted antibodies, adoptive cell therapy, oncolytic viruses, cancer vaccines, and immunomodulatory inhibitors.
1. Targeted therapy. This treatment method mainly relies on the principle of the human immune system producing proteins, developing specific markers to combat cancer, thereby disrupting the normal activity of cancer cells and limiting their growth. Targeted therapy can kill specific cancer cells without causing damage to other cellular tissues in the human body. Most targeted therapy drugs used in clinical practice are intravenous infusion, and targeted antibody drugs are convenient to use with fewer adverse reactions compared to traditional chemotherapy. Patients have good tolerance and can improve treatment compliance.
2. Adoptive cell therapy. The treatment principle of this therapy is to extract immune cells from the patient's body, and after genetic modification and amplification in vitro, they are reintroduced into the patient's body. Processing immune cells in vitro can bypass various mechanisms of immune disorders in patients, avoiding serious toxic side effects caused by the extensive use of biological agents in vivo.
3. Oncolytic virus. Oncolytic virus is a lethal virus with replication function, which can selectively infect tumor cancer cells by inactivating tumor suppressor genes in target cells, and replicate and kill cancer cells inside the cancer cells. This therapy is commonly used for the treatment of systemic cancer and other potential cancers.
4. Cancer vaccine. Cancer vaccine is a biological response regulator that can effectively regulate the patient's internal defense ability, strengthen immune function, kill and eliminate cancer cells, restore the body's immune ability, and ensure the balance and stability between cancer cells by injecting cancer vaccine into the patient's body. Common cancer vaccines include hepatitis B vaccine, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, prostate cancer vaccine, etc.
5. Immunomodulatory inhibitors. Mainly by controlling the normal activity of other elements in the immune system to release new or strengthen existing immune responses. Immunosuppressants can directly kill immune cells, promote stronger and faster immunosuppressive effects, and help alleviate the patient's condition. Most immunosuppressive modulators have low selectivity and can affect the normal immune response of the body. Clinical treatment should be selected reasonably based on the actual situation of the patient.