What is immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is a biological therapy that changes how your immune system fights diseases, including cancer. These therapies use the power of your own immune cells to boost how your body detects and attacks cancer cells.
In recent years, immunotherapy has given people with cancer even more treatment options, and new immunotherapies continue to be developed, tested and approved at a rapid pace.
How does immunotherapy work?
Your immune system works to fight diseases and infections in your body every day. It finds and destroys abnormal cells throughout your body, preventing or slowing the growth of many illnesses and conditions, including cancer.
But sometimes, cancer cells avoid detection and destruction by the immune system, allowing them to grow out of control. They may have genetic changes that let them hide from the immune system or interfere with the immune cells' ability to work as they should.
When this happens and your immune system is no longer able to effectively fight cancer cells on its own, immunotherapy treatment works to:
- Boost or stimulate the natural defenses of your immune system so that it can effectively find and destroy cancer cells
- Provide the body with additional immune system components, such as white blood cells, to improve or restore how your system functions
Many immunotherapy treatments can also be used in combination with chemotherapy, radiation, surgery or other targeted therapies to improve their effectiveness in preventing, managing or treating different cancers.
Types of immunotherapy
Several types of immunotherapies are used to treat cancer today, and they each work in different ways with your immune system. They may destroy cancer cells, slow the growth of cancer or keep it from spreading.
Because immunotherapies work in very specific ways in your body, immunotherapy for one type of cancer may not work on other types. Your care team will partner with you to decide if—and what kind of—immunotherapy might work in treating your cancer.
What cancers are treated with immunotherapy?
Several different types of cancer are treated with immunotherapy, such as blood cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, urologic cancers and more. But these therapies are often very specific to a particular cancer, so they may not be an option for every cancer type.
Usually, immunotherapy is used in advanced cancer or cancer that has come back. It may be a part of your treatment plan along with other options, such as chemotherapy or targeted therapy.
Cancers treated with immunotherapy include:
- Cancers that have high levels of a protein called PD-L1, which can cause the immune system to shut down. Immunotherapies can target PD-L1, allowing the immune system to respond as it should.
- Cancers with specific markers on their surface that can be targeted by modified immune cells.
- Cancers that have specific mutations or genetic changes. These may be easier to target with immunotherapy because they have features that distinguish them from healthy cells.
What is the success rate of immunotherapy?
The success rate of any cancer treatment depends on many factors, such as cancer type and stage. In general, immunotherapy is considered effective across a wide variety of cancer types, especially when paired with another type of cancer treatment. About 25-50% of people respond to these treatments.
Research also suggests that immunotherapy helps the immune system remember how to attack cancer cells long after treatment.
Immunotherapy side effects
Like other cancer treatments, immunotherapy may cause side effects—ranging from minor to severe. Before you have immunotherapy treatment, your care team will talk to you about specific side effects based on your cancer type, health history and immunotherapy type.
Often, you can manage minor side effects with the help of your team, and these side effects resolve on their own after treatment. If you’re experiencing side effects or unusual symptoms during or after immunotherapy, let your doctor know right away. Your doctors will need to monitor you throughout treatment and adjust or stop your immunotherapy as needed.
Some immunotherapy side effects include:
- Chills or fever
- Fatigue or weakness
- Coughing
- Decreased appetite
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Nausea or vomiting
- Rash
- Headache
- Muscle aches
- Mouth sores
- Changes in blood pressure
- Changes in thyroid hormone levels
- Inflammation in the colon, lungs, heart, pancreas or other organs
- Infections
- Allergic reactions
Why Baylor Scott & White Health for Immunotherapy
With our cancer experts on your team, finding comprehensive immunotherapy for cancer doesn’t have to feel complicated. Baylor Scott & White Health is the nation’s third-largest network of cancer centers accredited by the Commission on Cancer.
The Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, part of Baylor Scott & White Health, is a destination center for immune therapy in cancer care, offering individuals access to clinical trials and advanced treatment options that utilize these living drugs to treat the most complex forms of cancer.
Pioneering research and treatment in immunotherapies, Baylor University Medical Center was one of the first North Texas providers to offer adult commercial use of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T, to treat patients with large B-cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was also one of the first in the nation to become an authorized center for tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy to treat advanced melanoma.
The innovative therapies combined with the comprehensive cancer care at the Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center – Dallas provide a single destination of cancer care to make your journey of healing easier.
We continue to research and advance numerous other immunotherapies every day. And that means access to clinical trials you won’t find elsewhere.
Locations
You have access to multiple cancer care centers in Texas, including centers specializing in immunotherapy and research centers. Get started by finding an immunotherapy location near you.
