Q. Is immunotherapy really effective for cancer?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
Immunotherapy is becoming increasingly popular and noteworthy for its potential to treat cancer. This type of therapy works by stimulating the body’s natural immunity to fight off cancer cells, as opposed to traditional treatment options such as chemotherapy or radiation. While it has been proven effective in certain cases, the effectiveness of immunotherapy depends upon many factors including which type of cancer is present, how advanced it is, and any existing health conditions an individual may have.
Research studies suggest that immunotherapy can be effective in treating a variety of cancers when used alone or in combination with other treatments. Studies have found that this kind of therapy can improve overall survival rates for certain kinds of cancer such as melanoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In some cases immunotherapies are combined with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapies in order to increase their effectiveness.
In addition to improved survival rates for those suffering from multiple types of cancers mentioned above, numerous clinical trials have found that types of immunotherapies are also successful at prolonging progression-free survival (PFS) times—that is the time during which a patient does not experience further tumor growth after treatment—for leukemia patients who were previously unresponsive to chemotherapy treatments."
However, even though immunotherapies tend to show positive results clinically there is still much more research needed before scientific consensus can be reached about its efficacy for all kinds of cancers. That said though current evidence suggests Immunotherapy could revolutionize how we think about treating this dreaded disease because it tends directly target specific areas on tumors while leaving healthy tissue untouched thus increasing overall remission time while decreasing side effects associated with many traditional form's methods like chemo or radio therapies; but only time will tell if these claims will hold true after further investigation into its actual long-term effects on people's bodies.