A cure for cancer is closer than ever, according to a leading oncologist. Advances in immunotherapy are seen to be the most effective cure for cancer with successful treatments happening at a rapid rate.
Immunotherapy uses the body's own natural defense system to attack cancerous growths and cells. Aside from boosting the immune system, the treatment better recognizes cancer cells and eliminates them in a short amount of time.
Certain immunotherapy treatments mark cancer cells to allow the immune system to find and destroy them. In other types of treatments, the immune system is boosted to work better against the disease.
The treatment has been largely effective against kidney, bladder, lung, skin, head and neck cancers. These cancers are some of the most aggressive types that continue to claim thousands of lives every year. In addition, immunotherapy has achieved what bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy has failed to do which is to put chronic and relapsing blood cancers into remission.
Immunotherapy treatments have allowed patients to live with no resurgence of cancer. Since cancer cells typically thrive by hiding from the immune system, immunotherapy wakes up the patient's immune system to allow them to fight the disease, according to Daily Mail.
Certain immunotherapies have increased patients' cancer survival rates. The revolutionary treatment of immunotherapy is benefitting patients by improving their lives substantially, according to Dr. Rebecca Kristeleit from University College London Hospital. Kristeleit even mentioned that immunotherapy could soon be referred to as the cure to cancer.
Kristeleit explains that there are immunotherapy drugs that can be bought off the shelf. However, going through a clinical trial is better advised especially in locations where the drugs are licensed.
On May 18, The Food and Drug Administration approved a new immunotherapy medicine to treat bladder cancer. Known as Tecentriq, the drug works by unleashing the body's immune system to attack tumors, according to NY Times.
Tecentriq is the first drug approved for bladder cancer, which is known to have no new significant new medicine for years. Developed by the company Roche, which is the world's leading seller of cancer drugs, the drug significantly shrank tumors in 14.8 percent of cancer patients and completely disappeared in 5.5 percent of patients.
