What Are the Major Types of Immunotherapy for Treating Cancer?

Executive Summary

• Immunotherapy is one of the newer cancer treatments.
• We cover some of the significant types of immunotherapy for cancer.

Introduction

Immunotherapy is a curious area of cancer treatment where methods that enhance the immune system are used. In this article, we cover these major categories.

Understanding The Categories of Types of Immunotherapy

Some excellent explanations of immunotherapy are found in the quotations from Cancer Research.

Cancer immunotherapy comes in a variety of forms, including targeted antibodies, cancer vaccines, adoptive cell transfer, tumor-infecting viruses, checkpoint inhibitors, cytokines, and adjuvants. Many immunotherapy treatments for preventing, managing, or treating different cancers can also be used in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapies to improve their effectiveness.

Unleashing the power of the immune system is a smart way to fight cancer:

The immune system is precise, so it is possible for it to target cancer cells exclusively while sparing healthy cells.
The immune system can adapt continuously and dynamically, just like cancer does, so if a tumor manages to escape detection, the immune system can re-evaluate and launch a new attack.
The immune system’s “memory” allows it to remember what cancer cells look like, so it can target and eliminate the cancer if it returns.

Because cancer cells grow and behave in abnormal ways, this can make them stand out to the immune system, which can recognize and eliminate cancer cells through a process called immunosurveillance.

Then it lists several immunotherapy treatments.

This video gives an overview of immunotherapy. 

Immunotherapy Type #1: Targeted (Monoclonal) Antibodies

Targeted antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system that can be customized to target specific markers (known as antigens) on cancer cells, in order to disrupt cancerous activity, especially unrestrained growth. Some targeted antibody-based immunotherapies, known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), are equipped with anti-cancer drugs that they can deliver to tumors. Others, called bi-specific T cell-engaging antibodies (BiTEs), bind both cancer cells and T cells in order to help the immune system respond more quickly and effectively. All targeted antibody therapies are currently based on monoclonal antibodies (clones of a parent bonding to the same marker(s)).