Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.

Activation immunotherapies: Cancer treatment used to be focused on killing or removing cancer cells and tumors, with chemotherapy or surgery or radiation. These treatments can be very effective and in many cases are still used. Cancer immunotherapy attempts to stimulate the immune system to destroy tumors. A variety of strategies are in use or are undergoing research and testing. Randomized controlled studies in different cancers resulting in significant increase in survival and disease free period have been reported and its efficacy is enhanced by 20–30% when cell-based immunotherapy is combined with conventional treatment methods

Dendritic cell-based pump-priming or vaccination: Dendritic cells (DC) can be stimulated to activate a cytotoxic response towards an antigen. Dendritic cells, a type of antigen-presenting cell, are harvested from the person needing the immunotherapy. These cells are then either pulsed with an antigen or tumor lysate or transfected with a viral vector, causing them to display the antigen. Upon transfusion into the person, these activated cells present the antigen to the effector lymphocytes (CD4+ helper T cells, cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and B cells). This initiates a cytotoxic response against tumor cells expressing the antigen (against which the adaptive response has now been primed). The cancer vaccine Sipuleucel-T is one example of this approach.

T-cell adoptive transfer: Adoptive cell transfer in vitro cultivates autologous, extracted T cells for later transfusion

Alternatively, Genetically engineered T cells are created by harvesting T cells and then infecting the T cells with a retrovirus that contains a copy of a T cell receptor (TCR) gene that is specialised to recognise tumour antigens.

Checkpoint inhibitors: Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies are the two types of checkpoint inhibitors currently available to patients. The approval of anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies for human use has already resulted in significant improvements in disease outcomes for various cancers.

Immunosuppressive drugs: Immunosuppressive drugs help manage organ transplantation and autoimmune disease. Immune responses depend on lymphocyte proliferation. Cytostatic drugs are immunosuppressive. Glucocorticoids are somewhat more specific inhibitors of lymphocyte activation, whereas inhibitors of immunophilins more specifically target T lymphocyte activation. Immunosuppressive antibodies target steps in the immune response.

Journal of Cancer Diagnosis is an open access peer-reviewed journal dealing with articles on different aspects of Physical exam, Laboratory tests, Imaging tests, Biopsy, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Mammogram and breast ultrasound, Biopsy, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Tumour biomarkers, Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Imaging tests, Sputum cytology, Tissue biopsy, Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis, Imaging tests, Blood test, Surgery, Tumour markers, tide specific antigen (TPS), Neuron specific enolase (NSE), Carcino Embryonic antigen (CEA), Liver Cancer Diagnosis, etc.

Our Journal follows Editorial Tracking System for quality in peer review process. Editorial Tracking is an online manuscript submission, review and tracking systems used by most of the best open access journals.

Submit manuscripts at: https://www.scholarscentral.org/submissions/cancer-diagnosis.html

Media Person

Nancy Ella
Journal Manager
Journal of Cancer Diagnosis

Email: cancerdiagn@emedsci.com