Am curious how Immunotherapy works. Why can’t it be used on all diseases?
Not all cancers respond to immunotherapy although new therapies are being developed daily. They tend to be very narrowly targeted to specific types and subtypes of cancers. When they work they are miraculous but also have very significant and even fatal side effects. they are a godsend but more work to be done
I think you are injected with a large dose of a pathogen in the area of the cancer that you are immunized against.
Why can’t it be used on all diseases?
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One reason might be autoimmune diseases- In some diseases (RA for one) the meds that are used actually fight your own immune system.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/list-of-autoimmune-diseases
My wife is on immunotherapy for a metastatic melanoma in her lungs. Monthly she has a transfusion of two drugs, Yervoy and Opdivo.
After three sessions her cancer has shrunk. However, she has debilitating headaches and nausea. She says if an extended life continues like this, she’s not interested.
She has an appointment on Monday to discuss her options.
Immunotherapy generally uses something called monoclonal antibodies to allow the immune system to be more effective against a disease.
When I was an undergrad biochemist, way back in the early 80s, we were learning about monoclonal antibodies and there was a lot of hope that they would offer miracle cures for many diseases, including cancer. Took decades to get them working.
It may be possible to find or create them for a while bevy of diseases. In my wife’s case, they used two agents, one “took the brakes off” the immune system and the other “hit the gas”. Cancers often have proteins on them that hide them from an immune system response. The immunotherapy agent can block these proteins and suddenly make the cancer visible to your immune system. Then another agent kind of revs up the immune system to really hit it hard. Side effects are often autoimmune effects, since the supercharged immune system can also attack parts of your body which aren’t diseased. These side effects can often be managed. In my wife’s case, they were fairly mild and really only resulted in destroying her thyroid, which is common with them and is easily treated. A small price to pay to survive. I’m sure we’ll see more and more uses for immunotherapy treatments in the future.