Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Immunotherapy has been on an upward trend in cancer treatments recently. By activating the body’s own immune system, immunotherapy puts to use the body’s own powerful anticancer mechanisms to achieve a response against the cancerous cells. Most of the current cancer treatments are non-specific immunotherapy, meaning that they boost the immune system in a more general way and act by blocking antibodies and T cell receptors. On the other hand, specific immunotherapy targets tumor antigens on cancer cells.

A key factor in the development of tumors is the ability of cancerous cells to evade recognition from the bodies’ natural defense against cancer, the immune system. Immunotherapies effectively block the pathways that shield cancerous cells from being identified, and thus the promote the bodies own anti-tumor response. However, one challenge to immunotherapy has been its combination with chemotherapy, the mainstay of cancer treatment. While chemotherapy is extremely effective in stopping the rapid division of cancerous cells, its toxic immunosuppressive side-effect make it difficult to combine with

In this issue of Lancet Oncology, Dr. Antonia and colleagues report on the combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 After the recent approvals of nivolumab and pembrolizumab in NSCLC,2, 3, 4 there is a near frenzy of attempts to combine agents with inhibitors of the PD-1 immune checkpoint. Some efforts are based on only the shakiest of scientific evidence. However, the combination of durvalumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, and tremelimumab, a CTLA-4 inhibitor, has a sound scientific basis. Dual checkpoint inhibition is now an established treatment option for patients with advanced melanoma.5, 6

It has targeted cells that work to kill and defend any pathogen or impurity that enters one’s body. In the case of cancers, a person’s cells grow abnormally forming a tumor. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lose the ability to undergo apoptosis, cell death. Thus, one’s body harvests a tumor that most likely has a chance to spread and become deadly. Luckily, the biotech industry concocted innovative research that called for a new method of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is designed to program one’s immune system to destroy and fight off the cancer. Originally, it has been mainly used for allergies. Dosages of medication or vaccinations are given to a patient to ensure that the immune system will not overreact to certain types of foreign substances. The therapy requires a drug that delivers an anticancer immune cell, specifically designed to attach on to the specific antigen that the tumor contains. According to scientist, immunotherapy gives patients “long term protection with reduced side effects against the cancer” (McGinley). The purpose of this treatment is to strengthen the immune system and specifically targets cancerous cells. Due to scientific research and the use of biotechnological methods, immunotherapy is able to prevent the threat of killing cells necessary to one’s body. Providing patients with a treatment that does not take a toll on their bodies, nor threaten to kill healthy cells is one relief the person

The research presented in Jedd D. Wolchok “Cancer’s Off Switch” examines two different forms of immunotherapy used to treat cancer cells by boosting the patient's own immune system defenses. The article provides a comprehensive history of the scientific discoveries and previous research that lead to the immunotherapy treatments, specifically the different levels of the immune system. In addition, the article addresses two different methods of immunotherapy currently in testing in clinical use. The research is educationally significant because it focuses on the body's internal defense system and attempts to disable the brakes cancer cells enforce on the immune system, which has shown progress in both tumor size regression and improvements in

Cells that make up a malignant neoplasm are cells that do not follow the usual path of self-destruction when they are malformed or damaged. They are no longer able to execute their required function in the body. Meanwhile, they also manage to thwart the body’s immune system, which if they were unable to avoid, would destroy them as it does other dysfunctional or unnecessary cells in the body. This is how these mutated cells are allowed to flourish in a body. Not only do cancer cells flourish, but they excel at aggressively creating more and more cancer cells at a rate faster than our own body’s cells proliferate,

As the world continues to suffer from these devastating diseases, researchers continue to find alternative therapeutic ways of addressing cancer treatment. It is on this premise that various immunotherapeutic alternatives have emerged and currently garnering the greatest level of attention and already raising hope throughout the world in addressing the treatment of NSCLC. However, this can no longer be viewed as a discovery but a wave in the medicine world that began in the 20th century. Various researchers have found the importance of the role of immune systems in fighting the growth of tumor caused by cancer cells. A study by Huncharek (2000) stated that specific immune boosters are capable of eliminating preclinical cancers. In contrast, Jermal et al. (2011) found that immunotherapy is an effective approach for the treatment of tumors that have already turned into solid. Similarly, the researchers highlighted that immunotherapy can be an effective approach to the treatment of melanoma as well as renal cell cancers (Lasalvia-Prisco, 2008). However, Jemal et al. (2011) noted that immunotherapy cannot achieve much in cancer treatment due to limitation brought about by the emission of immunosuppressive cytokines and subsequent loss of antigen expressions. Recent development in research studies on the immunotherapy approach to cancer treatment continues to elicit mixed reactions among researchers of medicinal ecology (Jadad et al., 1996). However, recent development in

The established definition of rituximab resistance is the lack of response or the progression within 6 months of treatment to a rituximab-containing regimen.11 Continued disease progression during rituximab therapy is the most clearly defined form of resistance. Patients who experience tumor shrinkage may have some degree of rituximab sensitivity but can still be classified as “resistant” if they fail to achieve either a partial or complete response. Numerous pathways of tumor resistance have been elucidated with conventional chemotherapeutic agents. In some cases, these discoveries have translated into specific interventions intended to prevent or overcome tumor resistance.11 Surprisingly, little is known about the determinants of responsiveness and resistance to rituximab in the treatment of B-cell NHL.11 The exact mechanism(s) of rituximab’s action in patients, either as a single drug or in combination

Many patients are dying of prostate cancer as standard treatments are not providing the necessary results. There are new types of immunotherapy drugs which are known to work miracles for several forms of cancer. The probability of this drug helping those with prostate cancer is extremely small. There has yet to be evidence collected about the benefits and pitfalls of the treatment. If doctors were to test it on patients outside of a clinical trial, then that could be up for debate within the medical community. The drugs can have potentially deadly side effects including liver failure and nerve damage, but most patients only experience minor problems. Doctors are able to determine from biomarkers if immunotherapy treatment will help patients, but that testing is not completely accurate. Some doctors believe that they should try every possible

More than one third of the patients do not respond to induction therapy (primary nonresponse) and even among initial responders, the response wanes over time. John Berg has been treating Jeffery Monroe with Adalimumab for his IBD. She had begun to exhibit symptoms / or loss of response that may be attributed to subtherapeutic levels of Adalimumab (ADA) and/or the presence of antibodies to

Many doctors, physicians, researchers and biotech companies--including the revolutionary Seattle Genetics research facility--are now turning to antibody-assisted cancer treatments and precisely targeted cures instead of treating cancer with a cocktail of chemicals and radiation that generate risky side effects and damage the healthy tissue that patients need to recover. Cancers are among the most frightening and difficult-to-treat illnesses. Ranked as the leading cause of death and disability, cancer is actually an umbrella term that covers many different diseases. Each person faces a unique disease because cancers interact with the body's existing cells, so each case has a

The exact mechanism of Rituximab in LGI1 patients is still unclear. One possible explanation is that Rituximab targets CD20 on B cells, so it can attenuate B cells and deplete antibodies.[19]

Cancer immunotheraphy is a concept that has been around for centuries. Back in the 1800s, a bone surgeon named William Coley injected his patients with a vaccine consisting of killed bacteria hoping it would stimulate the body's defense system. During the 1990s, physicians treated people with cancer with a cytokine treatment. This treatment involved high amounts of interleuken-2 (IL-2) and interferon-γ (IFNγ), also known as inflammatory cytokines. These inflammatory cytokines were released by white blood cells that fight infection (T cells). However, this treatment can have very dangerous side effects such as vascular leakage and kidney damage, but some people that received the cytokine treatment have lived for decades. In the year of 1996,

CASE STUDY PROGRESS: The client has now received 3 cycles of combination chemotherapy for her breast cancer. Her last treatment with doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and 5-fluorouracil was approximately 12 days ago. She came to the emergency room with a 2-day history of fever, chills, and shortness of breath. On arrival, she is disoriented and agitated. Vital signs are 86/43, 119, 28, 39.8° C, SaO2 85% on room air. Laboratory data include WBC 1.2 thou/cmm, Hct 24.9%, Hgb 8.7 g/dl, platelets 125 thou/cmm. Differential WBC count shows 37% granulocytes, 60% lymphocytes, 3% monocytes. Chem 14 is within normal limits, with the exception of BUN 28 mg/dl, creatinine 1.6 mg/dl, and lactic acid 2.4 mg/dl. Chest x-ray demonstrates diffuse infiltrates in the left lower lung.

Cancer is the uncontrollable division and growth of abnormal cells resulting in formation of an aggressive tumour. In some forms of Breast cancer, the cells proliferate uncontrollably due to over-expression of the protein HER2 (Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2); a receptor embedded within the membrane of cells, allowing for the transfer of signals outside to inside the cell. Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody administered through intravenous infusion, to be taken on its own or in combination with one or more chemotherapy regimens. It reduces risk of the cancer reoccurring or spreading by inhibiting the effects of HER2, and enhancing the body’s immune system.