Non-specific immunotherapies also help the immune system to fight cancer. Most non-specific immunotherapies are administered after or simultaneously with other treatments for cancer, for example, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Some non-specific immunotherapies are administered alone as treatments.

Here are three non-specific immunotherapy:

Interferons. Interferons help the immune system to fight cancer and also can slow the growth of cancer cells. An interferon produced in a laboratory, called interferon alpha (Roferon-A [2a], Intron A [2b], Alferon N), is the most frequently used in cancer treatment. Interferon alpha is used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma, hairy cell leukemia (hairy), kidney cancer, melanoma, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Kaposi sarcoma. Side effects of interferon therapy may include symptoms similar to flu, an increased risk of infections, rashes and thinning hair.

Interleukins. Interleukins help the immune system to produce cells to fight cancer. An interleukin produced in a laboratory, interleukin-2, IL-2 or aldesleukin (Proleukin), is used to treat kidney cancer and skin, including melanoma. Common side effects of treatment with IL-2 include weight gain and low blood pressure, which can be treated with other drugs. Some people may also have symptoms similar to influenza.

Cancer Vaccines

Vaccines help the body fight disease. There are two types of cancer vaccines: vaccines for prevention and vaccines for treatment.

The vaccine for prevention is administered to a patient without symptoms of cancer to prevent the development of a specific cancer (or other illness.) For example, Gardasil is a vaccine that prevents a woman becoming infected with human papilloma virus (HPV), a virus that causes cervical cancer. This is the first vaccine approved by the FDA for cancer. Learn more about the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer (in English) and the role of HPV in other cancers (in English). There is also a vaccine that prevents infection with hepatitis B virus, which can cause liver cancer.

A vaccine treatment helps the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Also you can prevent a recurrence of cancer, destroy any remaining cancer cells after other treatments or stop cell proliferation. A cancer vaccine is designed to be specific, which means it was designed to attack cancer cells and not healthy. Vaccines for cancer treatments are still under development and only available through a clinical trial.

Source: www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer.Net+En+Espa%C3%B1ol/Tipos+de+tratamiento/Qu%C3%A9+es+la+inmunoterapia
image source: www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/9E1FEE8C-0775-BE40-A0AF18A934B76409_1.jpg

Possibility Related Posts:

• Immunotherapy (I)
  What is immunotherapy? Immunotherapy (also called biologic therapy or biotherapy) is a type of cancer treatment that uses the body's immune syste...
• New cervical cancer vaccine
  The World Health Organization has approved a new vaccine against cervical cancer. This was announced in a statement the company developing the vaccine...
• Treatments for cancer patients
  Treatments Surgery: invasive technique to remove the tumor. Usually also extracted tissue surrounding the tumor, to prevent metastasis. Radiatio...

What is immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy (also called biologic therapy or biotherapy) is a type of cancer treatment that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Doctors and researchers are unsure on how to treat cancer immunotherapy. However, think that can act as follows:

- to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells;
- to prevent the cancer spreading to other parts of the body;
- to help the immune system more effective in eliminating cancer cells.

There are several types of immunotherapy, including monoclonal antibodies, nonspecific immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer.

Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are produced in a lab and act the same way that the antibodies that the body produces naturally as part of the response of the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer.

Monoclonal antibodies are injected into a vein (intravenously, IV) and act by targeting proteins found on the surface of cancer cells or cells that support the growth of cancer cells, called antigens. When monoclonal antibodies bind to a cancer cell, may:

Allow the immune system destroy the cancer cell. The immune system does not always recognize cancer cells. It is possible to run a monoclonal antibody to which is attached to specific parts of a cancer cell. Thus, the antibody mark or label the cancer cell and immune system makes it easy to find it.

Prevent cancer cells proliferate rapidly. The body chemicals called growth factors bind to receptors on the surface of cells and send signals to the cells to multiply. Some cancer cells make extra copies of growth factor receptor, which causes them to grow faster than normal cells. Monoclonal antibodies can block these receptors and prevented from reaching the growth signal.

Apply radiation or administer powerful drugs directly into cancer cells. Some monoclonal antibodies carrying tiny radioactive particles directly to cancer cells without harming healthy. Monoclonal antibodies carrying radioactive particles emit these low levels of radiation over a longer period of time, what the researchers considered as effective as external beam radiation doses (radiation applied to a machine outside the body) . By way of example, ibritumomab (Zevalin) and tositumomab (Bexxar), treatments for NHL.

Diagnose cancer. Using special cameras, the monoclonal antibodies carrying radioactive particles can also be helpful to diagnose some types of cancer, including colorectal, ovarian and prostate. In addition, a pathologist (a doctor who specializes in interpreting laboratory tests and evaluating cells, tissues and organs to diagnose disease) monoclonal antibodies can be used when removing tissue from a patient to determine the type of cancer can have.

Administer powerful drugs directly into cancer cells. Some monoclonal antibodies carrying other cancer drugs directly to cancer cells. When the monoclonal antibody binds to the cancer cell, the cancer treatment that carries enters the cancer cell, causing its death without damaging other healthy cells. An example is gemtuzumab (Mylotarg), a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Monoclonal antibodies are also classified as a type of targeted therapy (a treatment that targets faulty genes or proteins that contribute to growth and development of cancer). Learn more about targeted therapies. Here are some other monoclonal antibodies approved by the Food and Drug Administration of USA. UU. (FDA) used to treat cancer:

Bevacizumab (Avastin)

Alemtuzumab (Campath-1H)

Cetuximab (Erbitux)

Trastuzumab (Herceptin)

Rituximab (Rituxan)

Panitumumab (Vectibix)
Are permanent clinical studies of monoclonal antibodies for various types of cancer.

Generally, side effects of treatment with monoclonal antibodies are generally mild and similar to an allergic reaction. Possible side effects include rash, low blood pressure and symptoms like the flu, including fever, chills, headache, weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, upset stomach or vomiting.

Source: www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer.Net+En+Espa%C3%B1ol/Tipos+de+tratamiento/Qu%C3%A9+es+la+inmunoterapia
image source: http://photos.demandstudios.com/55/152/fotolia_719835_XS.jpg

Possibility Related Posts:

• Immunotherapy (II)
  Non-specific Immunotherapies Non-specific immunotherapies also help the immune system to fight cancer. Most non-specific immunotherapies are admini...
• Treatments for cancer patients
  Treatments Surgery: invasive technique to remove the tumor. Usually also extracted tissue surrounding the tumor, to prevent metastasis. Radiatio...

Surgery: invasive technique to remove the tumor. Usually also extracted tissue surrounding the tumor, to prevent metastasis.

Radiation therapy: high-energy rays are used to damage cancer cells, thereby halting its growth and division.

Chemotherapy is drug treatment, which involves the injection of drugs that attack cancer cells in blood vessels or muscles. Chemotherapy is usually given in cycles, ie, after a treatment period is a recovery.

Hormone therapy: some types of cancer, including breast and prostate cancer depends on certain hormones for growth. Therefore, the specialist may recommend this type of therapy to prevent cancer cells from collecting or using the hormones needed to be further developed. This is achieved through the removal of ovaries or testes, in some cases, or by drugs that stop the hormone production.

Biological therapy: also called immunotherapy, is a treatment that uses the body itself to protect the body from infectious disease or treatment effects through the immune system.

The doctor may use a method or a combination of methods. The choice of treatment depends on the type and location of cancer, whether the disease has spread, the patient’s age and general health, among other factors.

Possibility Related Posts:

• Down syndrome give new options for cancer treatment
  People with Down syndrome may hold the key to the initiation of new studies and research to assist the treatment of cancer patients . Until recently,...
• Women with kidney cancer have increased in the last three decades as a consequence of smoking
  The increase in cases of kidney cancer has doubled the rate of 7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1975 to 12/100.000 today. This increase has been determin...
• Tips postchemotherapy
  The chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for cancer, but rather unpleasant side effects for the patient, such as nausea and vomiting. ...
• Causes of Lung Cancer
  The snuff smoking is the main cause in 90% of cases of lung cancer in both men and women. Decades ago, this tumor was much less common in women an...
• An increased risk of pancreatic cancer with consumption of meat
  The pancreatic cancer is one of the cancers most lethal amounting to 5% survival rate at 5 years. Scientists have focused their analysis of seven stud...