IMMUNOTHERAPY AND HUMAN BRAINCANCER

Cancer is a disease in which some of the body's cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Cancer treatment has come a long way from traditional chemotherapy.

CHEMOTHERAPY

Chemotherapy is a well-known treatment for cancer that includes the usage of drugs to

destroy cancer cells. It usually works by keeping the cancer cells from growing, dividing, and

making more cells. 

IMMUNOTHERAPY

Immunotherapy is a relatively newer form of cancer treatment that uses the immune system

to attack cancer cells. New cancer treatments such as immunotherapy target only the cancer

cells and spares the healthy cells, which result in fewer side effects and the ability to extend

survival and improve patient quality of life. Immunotherapy is a new treatment for cancer,

including cancers of the bladder, kidney, head and neck, lymphoma, melanoma and non-

small-cell lung cancer. In some cancers, traditional treatments such as chemotherapy work

well. In other cases, immunotherapy is added to traditional treatments, which boosts the

body's natural defences to fight cancer. In immunotherapy, the body's immune system helps fight cancer cells. The substances used in immunotherapy are either made by the human body or in a laboratory, to trigger or improve immune system function.

IMMUNOTHERAPY AND DOGS

As many of you must know, cancer affects dogs too and is the most common cause of death

in older dogs. Fortunately, immunotherapy’s benefits are beginning to be extended to dogs as

well. Osteosarcoma, common bone cancer in dogs, affects many dogs. While chemotherapy is

generally effective at killing some of the cancer cells, the numerous side effects can be

painful and often a subset of cancer cells exist that are resistant to chemotherapy. Whereas,

Immunotherapy is a successful way to treat allergies in dogs without any adverse side effects

or damage to organs. As many as 75% of dogs that receive immunotherapy are reported to

have an improvement in symptoms, with some being completely cured by the treatment.

CHEMOTHERAPY AND IMMUNOTHERAPY

Despite several decades of mixing and matching chemotherapy drugs for dogs with

osteosarcoma their life has not been extended substantially compared to 20 or 30 years ago.

Whereas, Immunotherapy works by introducing small amounts of what the pet is allergic to

and gradually increasing the dose over time so that the pet builds a tolerance to these

allergens. This is most often done via injections under the skin, but in some instances is

completed by drops placed under the tongue, usually twice a day. Immunotherapy must be

continued for at least one year before effectiveness can be determined.

IMMUNOTHERAPY TRIAL ALLOWANCE BY FDA ON HUMANS

According to Jeffrey Bryan, a professor at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary

Medicine, Dog’s and human's immune systems are uncannily similar. Tumours in both

slowly condition their host's immune systems to ignore them as they grow in size. So using a patient’s cancer cells as a vaccine to stimulate the immune system should translate between

humans and dogs, he said. And, theoretically, if tumour cells have enough mutations to be

recognized by the immune system, any type of cancer could respond to the treatment.

Bryan’s study helped convince the FDA to allow testing of this type of therapy in human

patients with glioblastoma multiforme, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer that is very

difficult to treat.

IMMUNOTHERAPY AND HUMAN BRAIN CANCER

Both osteosarcomas in dogs and glioblastoma multiforme in people are very aggressive

diseases that tend to take the patient’s life quickly, and they both express mutant proteins that

can be targeted for the immune system. The beauty of this immunotherapy approach is it can

be theoretically generalized for any kind of cancer. The advancement to these human trials

shows that we can apply this technology to help treat different diseases that are very deadly

and have few effective therapies currently. Cancer immunotherapy by blocking immune

inhibitory checkpoints or engineering T cells for adoptive cell transfer is providing an

unprecedented level of long-term antitumor activity in patients with several metastatic

cancers. 

BENEFITS OF IMMUNOTHERAPY OVER CHEMOTHERAPY

Immunotherapy may work when other treatments don’t: Some cancers (like skin cancer)

don’t respond well to radiation or chemotherapy but start to go away after immunotherapy.

It can help other cancer treatments work better: Other therapies you have, like chemotherapy,

may work better if you also have immunotherapy. It causes fewer side effects than other treatments: This is because it targets just your immune system and not all the cells in your body. Cancer may be less likely to return- When you have immunotherapy, your immune system

learns to go after cancer cells if they ever come back. This is called immune memory, and it

could help you stay cancer-free for a longer time.