Immuno Oncology?

Zenmushroom

Hi there. I'm a 29-year-old woman with a stage 1, grade 2, IDC. Tumor Size: 1.8cm. Receptor Profile: Her2+ Est+ Proj -

Just did a lumpectomy to get the tumor out. Will start chemo in a month.

I've been reading about a new, up and coming field called Immuno Oncology. It focuses on boosting your body's immune system to fight the cancer, instead of just carpet bombing your body with chemicals. Some say Immuno Oncology will be the cancer treatment of the future.

Has anyone else heard about this field? Tried it? Is it a scam? is there not enough information about it out there yet for it to be reliable?

Thanks.

Icietla

I first learned about it from a 1998 or 1999 article in The Atlantic Monthly. It described the case of a German woman who had melanoma.

For the type treatment about which I have read, they collect immune cells from the patient, train them to recognize (so they can destroy) the patient's cancerous cells, reproduce the trained immune cells, and put them into the patient. [Cancer cells lie about what they are to the immune cells making the patrol rounds, see -- in the ordinary course of the disease, the (otherwise perfectly good) immune cells are tricked because the cancerous cells know how to pass themselves off as normal tissue that belongs there.]

I understand there have been mixed results with a few types of cancers.

SpecialK

The type of process Icietla describes above is being used for several types of cancer, but there are a couple of other types of immuno-oncology. Monoclonal antibodies - Like Herceptin and Perjeta for Her2+ patients - are currently in use now, and are considered immunotherapy as they target tumor antigens that the immune system interprets as foreign. There are several checkpoint inhibitor drugs used for lung cancer as well - you may have seen commercials on TV for Keytruda and Opdivo - both are forms of immunotherapy. Vaccines are another form of immuno-oncology, and there are currently drugs in trials looking for FDA approval that are vaccines for assorted subtypes of breast cancer. I participated in a trial investigating a drug called GP2, a vaccine, for Her2+ recurrence prevention. This field is developing, and new breakthroughs are happening all the time - this type of treatment is the future and it will be a more customized form of treatment, but has a ways to go.