Treatment - Immunotherapy

        Immunotherapy is the name given to cancer treatments that use the immune system to attack cancers.

Immunotherapy can be of three types:

Local
Systemic (treating the whole body)
Non-Specific

Local immunotherapy

Local means treating only one part of the body. The best used example of local immunotherapy is in the treatment of bladder cancer. The vaccine BCG, used to prevent tuberculosis, causes inflammation in the bladder that fights cancer cells. When body tissues become inflamed, the cells of the body's immune system are stimulated to fight any invading bacteria, viruses or 'foreign' cells. The cancer cells are seen as foreign by the cells of the immune system. So the inflammation caused by the BCG vaccine fights the cancer cells.

This treatment is often given after superficial bladder tumours have been removed during an operation. A catheter (tube) is put into the bladder and the BCG vaccine put in. This treatment is given weekly for several weeks and has been shown to reduce the chance of the bladder cancer coming back.

Systemic immunotherapy
This means immunotherapy that is given to treat the whole body. It is much more common than local immunotherapy and can be used to treat a cancer that may have spread. Treatment with interferon or with Interleukin 2 (IL2) are examples of systemic immunotherapy. This type of treatment is most often used for melanoma and for kidney cancer.

Non-specific immunotherapy
In non-specific immunotherapy, treatment is given to boost the immune system generally so that it may become more effective in fighting cancer cells. These treatments have not generally been found to be as effective as researchers first hoped. But they are continuing their research to improve this type of treatment and are now looking at how the treatments work in combination with each other and with other types of cancer treatment.