04/17/2017
Someone asked what immunotherapy was, and this is what I posted in ACCadvocate:
it's a form of treatment that is being used to treat a variety of cancers. It's the latest hope for cancer patients. It seems to be effective for cancers like melanoma and probably some other cancers, but most ACC patients are not seeing a response. However, some have had an incredible response. Immunotherapy is a broad term that basically means that the immune system is being activated to kill the cancer cells. Our immune system is like a 24/7 surveillance system looking for anything it considers "foreign" or not belonging in our bodies. It's better known for it's role in controlling infections. It's the system that is activated by vaccines to prevent viral infections. It probably works better for viral infections than bacterial infections, and there's another group of cells that are involved in killing bacteria. Some cancers can be recognized as being "foreign" by the immune system, and when this happens, the immune system can kill the cancer cells. But cancers are almost like living creatures within us, meaning that they seem "to think" of ways to outsmart the immune system. They don't "think", but cancer cells do have ways of literally hiding from the immune system so that they aren't detected and killed. At some point, a molecule (which is a protein with a very specific structure and shape) called PD-1, was identified on the surface of certain types of cancer cells. It turns out that several drugs were developed that can recognize PD-1, and make the cancer cells come "out of hiding". Once exposed, the immune system targets them and kills the cancer cells. Sometimes it's easier to explain things by using comparisons or analogies rather than trying to directly explain these things. Between immunotherapy, molecular profiling and genetic profiling, there are more questions than answers lately. None of these are "simple to understand". These are areas that people study for several years before being considered knowledgeable enough to work with and explain these things!! So for us to understand them becomes far more difficult. The more they learn about the tiniest parts of a cell function, and what those functions are, the more difficult all of this becomes to understand. These fields are advancing so quickly that no one can keep pace. Our doctors treating us cannot keep up. So how are we expected to? While it would be ideal to have the body's own defense system fight and destroy cancer cells, it isn't that straightforward. Now that these drugs are being used widely, they are finding out that there can be some serious side effects from the therapies. One of the articles is https://www.nytimes.com/.../immunotherapy-cancer.html... and another is https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/health/immunotherapy-offers-hope-to-a-cancer-patient-but-no-certainty.html?rref=collection%2Fseriescollection%2Fimmunotherapy&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection. Since the New York Times is writing for "us" rather than doctors, these articles do a better job of explaining things :).
static01.nyt.com
