Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a group of cancer treatments that help the patient's own immune system recognize and destroy cancer cells, which often evade attack by switching off immune responses. According to the US National Cancer Institute, it spans several distinct approaches: immune checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell transfer therapies such as CAR-T, therapeutic antibodies including bispecific antibodies, immune system modulators such as cytokines, and oncolytic viruses. Some are given intravenously, while others are injected directly into a tumour or into the bladder. Immunotherapy is approved for many cancer types but is not yet used as widely as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and because a stimulated immune system can also act against healthy tissue, it has its own characteristic side effects. Therapeutic cancer vaccines also belong to immunotherapy, but on this site they are described in a separate group.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Checkpoint inhibitors block the immune system's natural "brakes" — checkpoint proteins such as PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 — which tumours exploit to switch off T cells, restoring the immune system's ability to attack the can…
CAR T-cell therapy
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of T-cell transfer therapy: the patient's own T cells are genetically modified in the laboratory to carry a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that recognizes a specific protein on cancer cells,…
Bispecific antibodies
Bispecific antibodies are laboratory-made proteins with two "arms": one binds a protein on cancer cells, the other binds the CD3 protein on T cells, physically bringing the two together so the T cell can kill the cancer …
Cytokines
Cytokines are the immune system's own signalling proteins — chiefly interferons and interleukins — given in laboratory-made form to strengthen the body's response against cancer; NCI classifies them among immune system m…
Oncolytic viruses
Oncolytic viruses infect cancer cells and multiply inside them until the cells burst, while normal cells are able to eliminate the virus; the debris of dying tumour cells additionally helps the immune system "see" the ca…