IMMUNO THERAPY

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment aimed at enhancing the body’s natural ability to fight cancer by improving the functions of the immune system.

The immune system protects the body against illness and infection, and it naturally defends the body against cancer cells. However, some cancer cells are able to grow and hide from the immune system allowing the growth and spread of cancer to continue. For example, some cancer cells may have genetic changes that make them less visible to the immune system. Others may have proteins on their surface that turn off immune cells..

Immunotherapy works by helping the immune system fight against cancer cells more effectively. It can do this in a variety of ways including:

• Correcting the immunological abnormalities that facilitate the growth of cancer cells.
• Enhancing the immune mediated  destruction of cancer cells.
• Weakening the cancer cells’ ability to evade the immune system.
• Targeting markers on cancer cells specifically to destroy them.

These are several types of immunotherapy based on the specific strategies used in fighting cancer cells:

Immune checkpoint inhibitor
The immune checkpoint is a key component of the immune system that controls or regulates the functions of the immune system and prevents the immune response from becoming too strong. By blocking these immune checkpoints, these checkpoint inhibitors allow the immune cells to respond stronger to cancer cells.

Nivolumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor commonly used in the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Monoclonal antibody
All cells have different receptors or proteins on their surface. Monoclonal antibodies are made so they can only connect to one type of receptor. Most monoclonal antibodies are made to connect to receptors on the surface of specific cancer cells. By connecting to cancer cells, they help the body’s immune system find the cancer cells and attack them.

Rituximab and Daratumumab are types of monoclonal antibodies used for the management of CD20 positive lymphoma and CD38 positive myeloma respectively.

Drug-conjugated monoclonal antibody
In this form of immunotherapy, a cytotoxic agent is attached to a monoclonal antibody, which then attacks the cancer cells. The use of drug-conjugated monoclonal antibodies such as Brentuximab can be useful in the management of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Immunotherapy can be effective in the management of many blood cancers including:

• B-ALL (B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia)
• AML (Acute Myeloid Leukaemia)
• B-cell lymphoma
• Multiple myeloma
• Hodgkin lymphoma