Immunotherapy for Cancer - NCI
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system.. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy.Biological therapy is a type of treatment that uses substances made from living organisms to treat cancer.

Side Effects of Immunotherapy - NCI - National Cancer Institute
Some types of immunotherapy may cause severe or fatal allergic and inflammation-related reactions. But, these reactions are rare. Certain side effects might happen depending on the type of immunotherapy you receive. Visit the page for the type of immunotherapy that you are receiving for more details about serious side effects.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - NCI - National Cancer Institute
Immunotherapy drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors work by blocking checkpoint proteins from binding with their partner proteins. This prevents the “off” signal from being sent, allowing the T cells to kill cancer cells. One such drug acts against a checkpoint protein called CTLA-4. Other immune checkpoint inhibitors act against a ...

Nivolumab - NCI - National Cancer Institute
Nivolumab is a type of targeted therapy drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor (a type of immunotherapy). It is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the protein PD-1 on the surface of immune cells called T cells. It works by keeping cancer cells from suppressing the immune system. This allows the immune system to attack and kill the cancer cells.

Cancer Treatment Vaccines - Immunotherapy - NCI
Cancer treatment vaccines are a type of immunotherapy that treats cancer by strengthening the body’s natural defenses against the cancer. Unlike cancer prevention vaccines, cancer treatment vaccines are designed to be used in people who already have cancer—they work against cancer cells, not against something that causes cancer.

T-cell Transfer Therapy - Immunotherapy - NCI - National Cancer Institute
T-cell transfer therapy is a type of immunotherapy that makes your own immune cells better able to attack cancer. There are two main types of T-cell transfer therapy: tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (or TIL) therapy and CAR T-cell therapy. Both involve collecting your own immune cells, growing large numbers of these cells in the lab, and then ...

CAR T Cells: Engineering Immune Cells to Treat Cancer - NCI
Nevertheless, after years of painstaking research, CAR T-cell therapies have entered the mainstream of cancer treatment, said Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Surgery Branch in NCI's Center for Cancer Research (CCR), an immunotherapy and CAR T-cell therapy pioneer. " [CAR T cells] are now widely available in the United States and ...

Definition of immunotherapy - NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
immunotherapy. (IH-myoo-noh-THAYR-uh-pee) A type of therapy that uses substances to stimulate or suppress the immune system to help the body fight cancer, infection, and other diseases. Some types of immunotherapy only target certain cells of the immune system. Others affect the immune system in a general way.

Immune System Modulators to Treat Cancer - NCI
Cytokines that are sometimes used to treat cancer: Interferons (INFs). Researchers have found that one type of interferon, called INF-alfa, can enhance your immune response to cancer cells by causing certain white blood cells, such as natural killer cells and dendritic cells, to become active. INF-alfa may also slow the growth of cancer cells ...

Imfinzi Improves Survival in Small Cell Lung Cancer - NCI
Durvalumab is a type of immunotherapy called an immune checkpoint inhibitor. The standard initial treatment for early-stage (also called limited-stage) small cell lung cancer—cancer that is confined to one lung or one side of the chest—is chemotherapy and radiation given at the same time. Although this treatment tends to work well at first ...