Immunotherapy Specialists

When it comes to cancer protocols, you’ve probably heard the word immunotherapy as a possible treatment option. This therapy taps your body’s own resources to help you combat cancer, and is often a great adjunct to other therapies, as well as a standalone treatment.
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At Charleston Oncology, the oncologists turn to immunotherapy quite often in order to arm their patients in Downtown Charleston, North Charleston, West Ashley, Mt. Pleasant, and the surrounding areas, with every cancer-fighting tool available. If you want to explore your options in immunotherapy, call to schedule a consultation today.

What is immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, has gained considerable traction over several decades as an essential treatment protocol for fighting certain cancers. The concept behind this therapy is to use your body’s powerful immune system to fight off cancer-causing cells, as well as give it the tools necessary to protect your health better. Immunotherapy is continually evolving as medical researchers explore the applications of this treatment, harnessing and boosting specific components in your immune system to target cancer cells.

Your immune system does a great job scanning your body for foreign invaders, attacking when it detects something out of the ordinary. The problem is that cancer cells are often outside of their frame of reference, and your body is unsure about how and whether to attack. With immunotherapy, the goal is to train your body to recognize these cells as harmful, prompting it to defend itself.

What are the different types of immunotherapy?

There are several different types of immunotherapies that the doctors at Charleston Oncology use, including:

Monoclonal antibodies

Your doctor introduces antibodies into your system to fight your disease using manufactured proteins.

Adoptive cell transfer therapy

These therapies include CAR T-cell therapy, short for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell. Your doctor may use this therapy if you have lymphoma or leukemia. Another example is T-cell receptor therapy, where your doctor reprograms the T cells in your blood to fight cancer. Lastly, your doctor may use tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, which are cells in your body that are already fighting the disease. With this method, your doctor reproduces these cells and adds them to your existing ones.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

This therapy encourages your immune system to attack cancer cells.

Vaccines

Much like traditional vaccines, your doctor introduces small amounts of cancer to help your body recognize it as dangerous and build antibodies to fight it off.

Some immunotherapies are more general and work to strengthen your immune system; overall, helping it better ward off cancer.

What cancers can immunotherapy treat?
The applications of immunotherapies are constantly evolving and there are hundreds of ongoing trials to explore their efficacy. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, your doctor at Charleston Oncology sits down with you to review your treatment options, including immunotherapy, to give you the best chances of success.

If you’d like to learn more about the potential of immunotherapy, call Charleston Oncology to schedule a consultation.

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