Immunotherapy is an exciting area of cancer research that is changing the way we think
about cancer treatment.
Immunotherapy works by using the body’s immune system to fight cancer.
The immune system is a complex network of organs, tissues, and cells, and the substances
they make.
Immunotherapy uses different ways to boost the immune system to do a better job of killing
cancer cells.
This video describes one type of immunotherapy called T-cell transfer therapy that is used
to treat cancer .
T cells are a type of immune cell and are powerful weapons the immune system uses to
fight cancer.
For T-cell transfer therapy, T cells are taken from a patient and changed in the laboratory
to make them better able to target the patient’s cancer cells and kill them.
Millions of copies of these specially changed T cells are then grown in the laboratory and
given back to the patient to fight the cancer.
T-cell transfer therapy is an effective way to treat some types of cancer, but it doesn’t
work for every patient and can cause serious side effects.
To learn more about immunotherapy, visit Cancer.gov/immunotherapy or call 1-800-4-CANCER.