Typically, when people hear the phrase “cancer treatment”, they think of chemotherapy, tumor removal surgery, or radiology. Many people don’t realize what other options are now available or being researched and studied. Treatment of this disease is rapidly growing and changing due to the development of new scientific technology. Advances in cancer research have led to the development of new types of therapies used to treat cancer. One of these treatment methods is called immunotherapy, which utilizes the body’s own immune system to attack the cancerous cells. There are many different types of immunotherapy, some of which include cancer vaccines, oncolytic virus therapy, and non-specific monoclonal antibodies (cancer.net).
Cancer cells affect …show more content…
It is a therapeutic vaccine that is used to treat certain advanced prostate cancers (fda). According to Gaines, the way it works is by causing the patient’s own immune system to attack an antigen called prostatic acid phosphates, present in the majority of prostate cancers. Before a dose is administered, a procedure called a leukapheresis must be carried out. During this process, blood from the patient is filtered and platelets and monocytes are removed and of the results is antigen producing cells, or APCs. The APCs are incubated with a protein that bind to them and are broken into smaller units that can cause the immune system to attack the prostatic acid phosphates. The cells that resulted from the leukapheresis are necessary for the success and composition of the vaccine (2012). During clinical trials, this drug increased survival over the next three years by 31.7%, displaying an increase in median survival of over four months (Gaines, 2012). Sipuleucel-T is hopefully just the first of numerous more cancer vaccines that will be approved in the future. Advances in immunology has shown great success in the treatment of advanced prostate …show more content…
During this type of therapy, viruses that have been altered genetically are injected into a patient’s tumor which spark a serious of steps. First, after entering the tumor, the virus infiltrates the malicious cells, causing them to rupture and die. When the cells are rupturing they give off antigens, or toxins, that prompt the immune system to attack all of the cancerous cells in the body (Cancer.net, 2016). A practical example of this treatment method, is used to treat melanoma on skin and lymph nodes. It it called talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) and it was approved in October 2015 (fda.org, 2015). T-VEC uses a modified herpes simplex virus that not only attacks the cancer cells but enhances the body’s defenses against possible reoccurring melanoma (Dolgin, 2015). This treatment is administered as a set of several injections directly into the melanomas at very specific, designed points in time for six months or until they can be injected into. This immunologic approach for skin cancer is revolutionary, as it is a very serious disease that can make its way throughout the body, causing it to become more dangerous and much harder to treat
Cancer cells affect …show more content…
It is a therapeutic vaccine that is used to treat certain advanced prostate cancers (fda). According to Gaines, the way it works is by causing the patient’s own immune system to attack an antigen called prostatic acid phosphates, present in the majority of prostate cancers. Before a dose is administered, a procedure called a leukapheresis must be carried out. During this process, blood from the patient is filtered and platelets and monocytes are removed and of the results is antigen producing cells, or APCs. The APCs are incubated with a protein that bind to them and are broken into smaller units that can cause the immune system to attack the prostatic acid phosphates. The cells that resulted from the leukapheresis are necessary for the success and composition of the vaccine (2012). During clinical trials, this drug increased survival over the next three years by 31.7%, displaying an increase in median survival of over four months (Gaines, 2012). Sipuleucel-T is hopefully just the first of numerous more cancer vaccines that will be approved in the future. Advances in immunology has shown great success in the treatment of advanced prostate …show more content…
During this type of therapy, viruses that have been altered genetically are injected into a patient’s tumor which spark a serious of steps. First, after entering the tumor, the virus infiltrates the malicious cells, causing them to rupture and die. When the cells are rupturing they give off antigens, or toxins, that prompt the immune system to attack all of the cancerous cells in the body (Cancer.net, 2016). A practical example of this treatment method, is used to treat melanoma on skin and lymph nodes. It it called talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) and it was approved in October 2015 (fda.org, 2015). T-VEC uses a modified herpes simplex virus that not only attacks the cancer cells but enhances the body’s defenses against possible reoccurring melanoma (Dolgin, 2015). This treatment is administered as a set of several injections directly into the melanomas at very specific, designed points in time for six months or until they can be injected into. This immunologic approach for skin cancer is revolutionary, as it is a very serious disease that can make its way throughout the body, causing it to become more dangerous and much harder to treat