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What is cancer immunotherapy?

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Immunotherapy is a set of treatments that stimulate the body's natural defences to fight a disease; in this case, to fight certain types of cancer. For example, immunotherapy can be used to treat some solid tumours, such as breast cancer, and haematologic cancers, such as leukaemia.

Immunotherapy is administered using drugs (which can be produced by the body or in a laboratory) that help improve the function of the immune system. Immunotherapy is considered a new generation therapy and has helped in the treatment of different types of diseases, which until recently were untreatable.

Immunotherapy | PortalCLÍNIC

It is a therapy that has changed the disease course of many tumours.

Daniel Benítez Immunologist

Immune system response against cancer

The response of the immune system to cancer cells has been a highly debated topic in the history of immunology. The current scientific consensus is that there is an immune response against cancer.

This response begins when danger signals, produced by tumour cells as they develop, are detected. These signals attract and activate immune system cells. This triggers the maturation of cells that identify tumour molecules (antigens) and present them to other immune cells (antigen-presenting cells). Finally, a specific adaptive response mediated by T lymphocytes occurs.

Therefore, immune mechanisms to fight cancer are part of a field with a great future which must continue to be studied. Today, antitumour immunotherapy is a reality.

In which cases should immunotherapy be used?

Currently, immunotherapy is a novel line of treatment. There are few cases in which this type of therapy is performed as a first line of therapy. For example, before patients can receive CAR-T therapy (a specific type of immunotherapy), they must have received at least two previous lines of therapy.

Consequently, this type of therapy is mostly applied when other therapeutic lines such as chemotherapy no longer work. This is known in medical terms as a relapse or refractoriness to treatment. These new modalities, such as immunotherapy, have provided treatment opportunities for patients who did not have them before; thus, extending life and improving its quality.