Cancer Immunotherapy


A cancer treatment option that many doctors fail to mention is immunotherapy. What this therapy entails is provoking the body’s natural immune system to fight the cancer cells themselves. Although many cancer patients have not heard of this treatment, is not a concept that is new to medical science. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to immunotherapy is the lack of knowledge about it. However, it is a treatment that is growing in publicity and may one day become the main treatment used to kill cancer.

Science and nature working together

Doctors who practice cancer immunotherapy have methods of activating anti-bodies in the blood and strengthening them against enemy cancer cells. There are some very involved ways of doing this and there are many different types of immunotherapy that can be carried out on a patient. What makes this treatment so effective is that there is a mutual working together of medical science, with the natural fighting mechanisms of the body. With the help of further research, this may become the most effectual method of beating cancer.

Not a new concept

Research on immunotherapy dates back to 1796 when this form of treatment was first conceptualized by Edward Jenner. Jenner experimented with the treatment (successfully) using smallpox as the disease he was trying to cure. Today, two immunotherapy methods have been approved between 2010 and 2011 by the FDA. These treatments are for prostate cancer and melanoma. Further studies need to be done in order to expand this treatment to other forms of cancer, and this research is being conducted.

Lives being saved

Because this treatment is gaining so much awareness, more and more Cancer victims are opting for immunotherapy as a means to beat Cancer. Due to the success of many trials, people’s lives have been saved. The more success stories we hear about this therapy, the more publicity it gets. This cycle will continue to snowball and hopefully immunotherapy will be used against other types of cancer.

Because immunotherapy works so well and does not harm the body (as some other cancer treatments do), it is set to gain more popularity as time goes by. Now that more and more success is being achieved through this therapy, it is starting to become noticed as a viable alternative to other forms of treatment. Though it has had humble beginnings, immunotherapy is saving lives and will continue to do so in the future.


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