Pros and Cons of Immunotherapy
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While the potential benefits could be cure of your cancer or long-term control of your cancer, it really depends on what type of cancer you have, what therapies we have available, um, and kind of how those therapies are used in the treatment of your cancers.
The other possible benefit is that if that immune therapy is able to take the place of older, more conventional therapies that may have increased side effects, then you may have an easier time receiving therapy for your cancer.
Any therapy has a list of risks associated with it. With the immune therapies, one of the common themes is that sometimes, the therapy doesn't work. So some patients will not respond to a given immunotherapy even if that immunotherapy works well in the majority of patients with that cancer type.
The other risk, of course, is of side effects. And a common threat with immunotherapies is that sometimes, the immune system can get ramped up a little too much. And instead of just targeting the cancer, like we would hope for, the immune therapy can actually activate the immune system to attack normal cells and cause autoimmune-like effects, um, or other disruptive symptoms for the patient.
JEAN KOFF
Immunotherapy refers to any therapeutic approach or th-- it can be a drug or even cells that are used to either boost the immune system-- make it look smarter, look harder to attack and kill cancer cells-- or to simulate those type of immune cells or immune properties to do the same thing. While the potential benefits could be cure of your cancer or long-term control of your cancer, it really depends on what type of cancer you have, what therapies we have available, um, and kind of how those therapies are used in the treatment of your cancers.
The other possible benefit is that if that immune therapy is able to take the place of older, more conventional therapies that may have increased side effects, then you may have an easier time receiving therapy for your cancer.
Any therapy has a list of risks associated with it. With the immune therapies, one of the common themes is that sometimes, the therapy doesn't work. So some patients will not respond to a given immunotherapy even if that immunotherapy works well in the majority of patients with that cancer type.
The other risk, of course, is of side effects. And a common threat with immunotherapies is that sometimes, the immune system can get ramped up a little too much. And instead of just targeting the cancer, like we would hope for, the immune therapy can actually activate the immune system to attack normal cells and cause autoimmune-like effects, um, or other disruptive symptoms for the patient.
