Using your immune system to fight cancer

There have been some recent rather dramatic advances in the treatment of cancer, mostly using targeted immunotherapy.

Checkpoint Inhibition
Cancer cells are immunologically different than our regular cells, and should provoke an immune response. Scientists have discovered that the immune system is actually activated, but the body produces checkpoint proteins that inhibit the response. By using pharmaceuticals that inhibit these proteins researchers have actually induced remissions in stage 4 cancers, such as melanoma, lung, kidney and colon cancers!

Adaptive Cell Transfer
Even under normal circumstances, the body often wages a feeble fight against cancer. Scientists have developed ways to extract these killer cells, grow them in culture, enhance them and re-infuse them with often dramatic success.

Creating Un-natural attackers
Using viruses that have been modified to look like tumor cells, scientists have managed to induce an immune response against the tumor. This has especially been effective in recurrent childhood leukemias.

These techniques are still somewhat in their infancy, and have had limited success against some of the major cancers, such as breast. As well, there is occasional some breakthrough mutation in the cancer. However, when they do work they can treat previously fatal stage 4 cancers! Steps in the right direction!