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Mesothelioma immunotherapy
By Eden Ali | December 5, 2007
Immunotherapy, often times referred to as biological therapy is a new procedure for the treatment of mesothelioma cancers, which applies the use the body’s own immune system to fight against disease in mesothelioma patients. Medical researchers have discovered that the body’s immune system is able to identify the difference between healthy cells and mesothelioma cancers, and destroy the bad or cancerous cells. Immunotherapy as a treatment of mesothelioma is intended to repair, incite, or improve the body’s immune system’s innate anticancer role.
In immunotherapy, the meterials used are called biological response modifiers (BRMs). They change the inter-reaction balance between the body’s immune protection and mesothelioma cancers. This ultimately improves the body’s capability to combat disease in mesothelioma patients. There are some BRMs which exist innately in the body, such as cytokines and antibodies.
Furthemore, BRMs are possible to be made in the laboration now, and they can reproduce what natural immune system can do or effect innate immune response agents.
These BRMs may:
1. Improve the immune system of mesothelioma patients to combat and destroy cancer cell growth;
2. Eradicate, control, or inhibite body responses that allow cancer growth;
3. Make cancerous cells more sensitive to destruction by the immune system;
4. Change the cancer cell’s growth procedures to act like regular cells;
5. Impede or reverse the procedure which alter a normal cell into a cancer cell;
6. Disallow a cancer cell from extending or expanding to other sites in the body.
Many BRMs are currently being used in the treatment of mesothelioma, including interferons, interleukins, tumor necrosis factor, colony-stimulating factors, monoclonal antibodies, and cancer vaccines.
Topics: Mesothelioma treatment ways |