What role does immunotherapy play in modern cancer treatment?
Immunotherapy has emerged as a groundbreaking approach in cancer treatment by harnessing the body's immune system to fight cancer. Unlike traditional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, which directly target cancer cells, immunotherapy stimulates the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells more effectively.
One of the most notable types of immunotherapy is the use of checkpoint inhibitors. These drugs block proteins that prevent immune cells from attacking cancer cells, thereby unleashing the immune response. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo), have shown remarkable success in treating various cancers, including melanoma and lung cancer.
Another promising approach is CAR-T cell therapy, which involves modifying a patient's T cells to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can specifically target and destroy cancer cells. CAR-T cell therapy has demonstrated significant efficacy in treating certain types of blood cancers, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
