Immune Health

Immunotherapy: Technologies and Clinical Trials for Cancer Patients

Immunotherapy is a paradigm shift in cancer treatment for various reasons.

Purpose and Inspiration of the Article

As a technologist with a science background, immunotherapy technologies and clinical studies are of particular interest to me. Cancers remain close to my heart as they affect some of my friends and colleagues.

I focus on cancers in my research and writing because, unfortunately, as documented by World Health Organization (WHO), “cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020.”

However, the good news is that “many cancers can be cured if detected early and treated effectively,” as informed by WHO.

In this post, I aim to introduce immunotherapy as an effective treatment method for many cancers, highlight the importance of clinical trials, and create awareness of emerging immunotherapy technologies.

In previous articles, I focussed on preventive measures for cancers. Therefore, some subscribers inspired me to share my perspectives on immunotherapy for cancer treatment.

This post is not health advice. I wrote it for information, inspiration, and awareness purposes leveraging credible sources.

A Brief Introduction to Cancers

According to National Cancer Institute (NCI), “cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. There are more than 100 types of cancer.”

Our trillions of cells constantly change through the process of cell division. Damaged cells die, and new ones emerge. This biological process is typical for homeostasis.

However, as informed by the NCI, “Sometimes this orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they shouldn’t. These cells may form tumors, which are lumps of tissue. Tumors can be cancerous or not cancerous (benign).”

NCI points out that “Cancerous tumors spread into, or invade nearby tissues and can travel to distant places in the body to form new tumors (a process called metastasis).”

Even though cancer is a genetic disease, epigenetic factors through lifestyle choices seem to play a role when we look at the root causes.

What is immunotherapy, how does it work, and what are the technologies?

Immunotherapy has a long history. Dr. William B. Coley used the first immunotherapy to save a patient with inoperable cancer in 1891.

Since then, immunotherapy research substantially grew. For example, the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) has indexed 395,220 medical reports about immunotherapy since 1944.

Our immune system can naturally fight against cancer cells by destroying them or slowing down cancer growth.

However, some cancer cells might not be detected by the immune system for various reasons, such as genetic changes, covering proteins, and their effects on normal cells.

Immunotherapy can empower the immune system to address these issues to fight against cancer cells and eliminate them. Scientists see immunotherapy as a paradigm shift in healthcare.

According to NCI, there are five types of immunotherapy. They are “immune checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell transfer therapy, monoclonal antibodies, treatment vaccines, and immune system modulators.”

As confirmed by NCI, “Immunotherapy has been approved in the U.S. and elsewhere as a first-line of treatment for several cancers, and may also be an effective treatment for patients with certain cancers that are resistant to prior treatment. Immunotherapy may be given alone or in combination with other cancer treatments.”

According to NCI, “as of December 2019, the FDA has approved immunotherapies as treatments for nearly 20 cancers as well as cancers with a specific genetic mutation.”

As documented in this paper in Nature, “Immunotherapy has become a powerful clinical strategy for treating cancer. The number of immunotherapy drug approvals has been increasing, with numerous treatments in clinical and preclinical development.”

However, the paper points out that “a key challenge in the broad implementation of immunotherapies for cancer remains the controlled modulation of the immune system, as these therapeutics have serious adverse effects including autoimmunity and nonspecific inflammation.”

Therefore, from a technological standpoint, the paper informs that “Advanced biomaterials and drug delivery systems, such as nanoparticles and the use of T cells to deliver therapies, could effectively harness immunotherapies and improve their potency while reducing toxic side effects.”

I won’t go into the technical details to keep this post in a reasonable size. However, interested readers might review this outstanding paper indexed in PubMed to learn about research advances, a critical analysis of the outlook for these emerging areas, and opportunities and challenges for integrating delivery technologies into cancer immunotherapy.

This paper presents “several case studies in cancer immunotherapy drug development to highlight important lessons from the past. These lessons illustrate innovative, rapid clinical development pathways for novel immunotherapy agents with clinical benefits highlighting the need for appropriate cautions to detect and manage potential adverse events early in the drug development process.”

From my reviews, one of the best resources documenting immunotherapies is the Wyss Institute of Harvard University. Interested readers might access the six technology domains at this web link.

In addition, Technology Networks Cancer Research explains five types of immunotherapy and provides helpful links to each.

Key Differences Between Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy

Chemotherapy has been successfully used since the 1960s.

The key difference between chemotherapy and immunotherapy comes from the approach to eliminating cancer cells.

Chemotherapy attacks cancer cells directly. However, the process can also affect normal cells. Whereas immunotherapy can strengthen the immune system by teaching it to specifically recognize cancerous cells.

Another difference is that chemotherapy is much faster than immunotherapy for its effects. However, the effects of immunotherapy are more persistent than chemotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy is also used for HIV patients whose immune systems function normally. As informed by NCI, “HIV patients are eligible to receive immunotherapy, both as a standard of care and as part of a clinical trial.”

Awareness for Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

NCI informs that “clinical trials can offer many valuable treatment opportunities for patients.” Immunotherapy is one of them. “Hundreds of new and promising cancer immunotherapy treatments are only available to patients in clinical trials.”

As NCI mentions, unfortunately, many patients are unaware of recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy research and the growing opportunities to participate in new cancer clinical trials. Therefore, I want to highlight their importance in this post to inform my readers.

Medical doctors can inform patients about these clinical trials. However, showing interest in participating in them can be a proactive health measure. It can be valuable to discuss clinical trial options with our physicians.

Interested readers might show interest in clinical trials using this weblink. The site is interactive, asking around 14 questions related to specific cancers. In addition, scientific studies related to clinical trials can be accessed via this weblink.

Conclusions and Takeaways

In previous articles, I focussed on preventive measures for cancers. As mentioned in this article, I firmly believe that some cancers might be preventable with healthy lifestyle choices and support from qualified healthcare professionals.

I introduced the value of intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets for cancer prevention and treatment in a previous article. I wrote about the benefits of exercise in lowering cancer risks. In addition, I penned a piece about reducing liver cancer risks with healthy lifestyle habits.

Unfortunately, cancers cause millions of deaths yearly. Nevertheless, many cancers might be cured if detected early and treated effectively.

One of the promising and effective treatment methods is immunotherapy. The most significant benefit of immunotherapy is its sustainability by teaching and empowering the immune system to deal with cancer cell growth.

Cancers have five stages measured with numbers from 0 to 4. For example, zero indicates no evidence of a tumor. And four shows a more significant and denser tumor than previous numbers. Therefore, timely screening for cancers is crucial. Early detection of cancers can significantly increase the chance of recovery.

Understanding the value of immunotherapy can be helpful as a proactive measure for all of us. Therefore, I highlighted the importance of this effective therapy and ongoing clinical trials as an option to discuss with our family doctors and oncologists who screen cancer cases.

As documented in this paper in BMJ’s Journal for ImmunoTherapy for Cancer, “Cancer immunotherapy trials lead a paradigm shift in drug development.”

As a realistic optimist, I always keep hope and believe in the healing power of our bodies.

If you enjoyed this story, you may also check this valuable piece written by Mike Broadly, DHSc.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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