Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells, in much the same way that it attacks bacteria or viruses. Immunotherapy has become a recent treatment option for patients with cancer and an essential part of our personalized approach to precision medicine. At Dignity Health – Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, immunotherapy is part of how we provide better outcomes while focusing on patient care with humankindness.
When Is Immunotherapy Needed
Immunotherapy activates or suppresses your body’s immune system, allowing your cells to treat the cancer. In recent years, there have been major advances in this field of cancer treatment. As an innovative leader in clinical research, Dignity Health – Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s utilizes various types of immunotherapies for a variety of conditions, including:
- Melanoma
- Lung cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Bladder cancer
- Lymphoma
I believe in providing my patients with all potential treatment options and tailoring treatment recommendations to each patient within a context of evidence-based medicine.”
Shyamal Patel, MD
Radiation Oncology
Types of Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy can be given in the form of drugs, which means that we extract and modify a patient’s own immune cells before infusing them back into the body. We are utilizing immunotherapies every day in many types of tumors and different cancer types. Immunotherapy treatment options include:
- Checkpoint Inhibitors – Release a natural brake on your immune system so that immune cells called T cells recognize and attack tumors.
- Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines – Train your body to protect itself against its own damaged or abnormal cancer cells.
- And coming soon, Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy – An approach in which a patient’s own immune cells are engineered to make a new protein, turning the cells into supercharged cancer fighters.
