Immunotherapy for cancer treatment

Scientists are still researching ways to treat cancer with immunotherapy, giving hope for the future.
Cancer is always considered a "death sentence" for the sick. However, thanks to the development of science, researchers are constantly researching ways to help patients prolong life, even, completely destroy malignant cells.

Three common cancer treatments

In ancient Egypt, people believed that cancer was caused by gods. However, during this period, they were able to distinguish malignant and benign tumors. Doctors also use surgical removal of surface tumors in the same manner as today. By the time of Hippocrates (the ancestor of world medicine, born around 460 BC), he thought that cancer was the result of excess bile in the body. Hippocrates uses the words "carcinos" and "carcinoma" (Greek) to describe tumors. The cancer is called "karkinos" (Greek for crab), because he realized that the malignant tumor was shaped like a crab.

Over time, doctors constantly learn how to treat this evil disease. With the development of anesthetics in the 19th century, surgery became easier but there were still limitations, especially for patients who were in the stage of metastasis, the tumor had spread.

Scientists have been researching cancer treatments for decades. Photo: Roche

In 1903, the first patients were successfully treated with radiation therapy. This type of treatment uses high-energy rays to kill cancer cells. This method is a huge step forward and is still used today. However, radiation therapy has limitations that damage normal cells during treatment and can cause side effects.

The next remarkable development was the introduction of chemotherapy first discovered during World War II, with the first treatment of metastatic cancer in 1956. At this time, This is a big breakthrough, bringing hope to patients. Chemotherapy has grown over the past 70 years and is becoming more complex than it used to be, but it still works by destroying cancer cells, especially targeting dividing cells. fast. However, chemotherapy not only causes cancer cells to be destroyed but other normal cells, including in the blood and bone marrow, are also affected. Therefore, the undesirable side effect of chemotherapy is the destruction of healthy cells like white blood cells that make people more susceptible to infections.

Immunotherapy for cancer treatment

For centuries, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy have always been used to treat cancer patients. But chemotherapy and radiation are considered "brutal weapons" in destroying healthy tissue, while surgery still has the potential for malignant cells to exist.

A big step forward in cancer treatment is targeted therapies - a type of treatment that stops the growth of malignant cells by interfering with specific molecules. While radiation and chemotherapy target normal and malignant cells, targeted therapies target specific cells, involving cancer. This method is called immunotherapy.

The immune system detects and destroys anything that shouldn't be in the body (including cancer cells) by recognizing abnormal changes in normal cells. Normally, the immune system works to remove these foreign or abnormal cells by using T cells to search for and eliminate potential threats. However, in some cases, these mutated cells can evade the immune response to develop into harmful tumors.

Immunotherapy is considered a ray of great hope for cancer patients. Photo: BBC

By learning more about cancer and how the immune system works, scientists gradually develop drugs that boost immunotherapy. The goal of these drugs is to help the immune system identify and attack cancer cells in different ways. Some look for and overwrite mechanisms that block T cells that help induce an immune response, others seek to stimulate an immune response.

Immunology and oncology is a very complex science but by understanding the aspects of biology, scientists can adjust the use of cancer immunotherapy for each type. A person's specific tumor.

Robin Taylor, vice president of cancer immunotherapy at Roche, said the use of chemotherapy destroys even healthy growing cells, leading to a reduced quality of life for cancer patients. pronounced. So, immunotherapy is a great study because it not only attacks cancer cells but also completely eliminates them.

"Cancer immunotherapy is an exciting and ever-expanding area of ​​research that could change the way we treat this deadly disease in the future. Extensive knowledge about immune biology, how to strengthen and support the body's immune system to fight cancer, giving patients optimism and hope in both the present and the future, "said Robin Taylor.