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.

In recent years,immunotherapy has become of great interest to researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies, particularly in its promise to treat various forms of cancer.

Immunomodulatory drugs currently have unknown effects on the body.

Cell-based immunotherapies are effective for some cancers. Immune effector cells such as lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells (NK Cell), cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), etc., work together to defend the body against cancer by targeting abnormal antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells. Vaccine-induced immunity to Covid-19 relies mostly on an immunomodulatory T cell response.

Therapies such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), interferons, imiquimod and cellular membrane fractions from bacteria are licensed for medical use. Others including IL-2, IL-7, IL-12, various chemokines, synthetic cytosine phosphate-guanosine (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotides and glucans are involved in clinical and preclinical studies.

Activation Immunotherapies

Cancer

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. In 2018 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation." 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 tumor antigens. The virus integrates the receptor into the T cells' genome. The cells are expanded non-specifically and/or stimulated. The cells are then reinfused and produce an immune response against the tumor cells. The technique has been tested on refractory stage IV metastatic melanoma and advanced skin cancer^.

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.

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.

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