Cancer Immunotherapy
Using the immune system to treat cancer.
What is it?
Cancer immunotherapy uses a person’s own immune system to fight the disease. This
treatment has become an important part of treating certain types of cancers because of how
it can benefit the patient. Immunotherapy can be used by itself or in conjunction with other
types of treatments.
Types of Cancer Immunotherapy
Cancer immunotherapy can be broken down into two categories, those that boost the
immune response and those that enable the immune response.
• Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs): These types of man-made immune system proteins
can be made to attack very specific parts of a cancer cell.
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors: This drug can allow the immune system to go full force
to recognize and attack cancer cells.
• Cancer vaccines: Just as the flu vaccine, cancer vaccines are put into the body to start an
immune response against the disease.
• Other immunotherapies: Non-specific cancer immunotherapies are not made to
specifically target cancer cells, but instead they are made to stimulate the immune
system so that it will respond better to cancer cells.
Immunotherapy in Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are research studies done to determine whether certain medications,
treatments, or devices are safe and effective for humans. The studies follow strict scientific
standards and require more testing than typical treatment.
Clinical trials are broken down into three phases:
• Phase I: This phase tests to show whether a certain drug is safe for human use. Phase I
trials typically last several months to a year and are conducted on individuals who have
tried other treatments without success. The patient base is small due to the uncertainty
of the treatment.
• Phase II: This phase gives more insights on how well a particular treatment works. A
larger sample of people is tested and t