Immunotherapy is among the approaches that can be used to treat several health issues including auto-immune diseases, allergies, and even certain cancers. If we talk about immunotherapy for breast cancer, it can be used to treat it. How? According to Dr. Kanury Rao, immunotherapy is a medical approach that can boost the immune system. Once the immune system is strong, it can kill the bad cells – specifically the cancerous ones. In some nations, immunotherapy is used by oncologists to treat metastatic triple-negative and early-stage high-risk breast cancer. In case you are not sure about this approach, there are a number of clinical trials and research works available that support the effectiveness of immunotherapy for breast cancer.
Understanding immunotherapy and breast cancer
Immunotherapy is the treatment for breast cancer that can help you make your immune system strong so that it can prevent the body from the attack of cells causing breast cancer. It also kills those cells to improve the conditions. As per recent research, it is believed that immunotherapy is quite an amazing and effective treatment option for metastatic triple-negative and high-risk but early-stage breast cancer.
Here, early-stage cancer means a testing process that detects the tumors before spread or metastasize. High-risk, on the other hand, means cancerous tumors that are more likely to recur even after the treatment. Kanury Rao has mentioned that oncology experts and researchers are continuously working toward assessing immunotherapy as a critical treatment for ER-positive and HER2-positive breast cancer.
How effectively does immunotherapy work for breast cancer?
Immunotherapy is the treatment that trains the immune system so that it can find and kill the cancer-causing cells. In addition to this, it is one of the approaches that can help your body to produce the immune cells that can fight cancer. Speaking about the immunotherapy for breast cancer, there are mainly two types.
These include the ones listed below:
- Active Immunotherapy
In active immunotherapy, certain drugs are used that are focused on the immune system that can manage the breast cancer cells. In order to create these custom-made drugs, experts assess the breast cancer cells. Since healthy cells consist of antigens, it is a critical step. Based on the specific findings, these healthcare experts design further treatment plans.
- Passive Immunotherapy
As per Dr. Kanury Rao, another type of breast cancer immunotherapy is passive immunotherapy. This specific approach includes lab-made or lab-based drugs. These are used to make the cancer-fighting tools of the immune system stronger.
What drugs are used for the treatment of breast cancer?
Speaking about the US-based association such as the US Food and Drug Administration, they have approved some immunotherapy drugs or medicines for breast cancer. Below are the details of these drugs:
- Pembrolizumab/Keytruda®
This drug may be used by the healthcare providers to cure triple-negative breast cancer. What is the use of this drug? The main use of this medicine is to boost the response of the immune system to bad or cancerous cells. This medicine also blocks the protein in the cancer cells. When it comes to the uses, healthcare providers may provide this medicine after or before surgery. This is given to reduce the chances of recurrence.
- Dostarlimab/Jemperli®
This is one of the medicines that is used by healthcare experts to treat metastatic breast cancer. In the opinion of the country’s top immunologist and researcher, Dr. Kanury Rao – since it is the stage that can spread even after the surgery, this drug can be utilized by oncologists to control the situation.
How is immunotherapy given to breast cancer patients?
If you are new to immunotherapy, then you should know about the procedure. Talking about the methods followed, the medicines are given through injections into the veins. However, the treatment mainly depends on the specific condition and cancer stage of the patient. In general, immunotherapy is provided after every 3-6 weeks for 2-3 years.
What are the benefits and risks of immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is considered an effective treatment option for breast cancer i.e. triple-negative. It can cure this condition quite well. Apart from this, immunotherapy is equally beneficial for metastatic breast cancers. However, not every metastatic condition is curable through immunotherapy.
Talking about the side effects, some people may experience some issues after receiving immunotherapy and it is only because of the body’s reaction. Some common side effects include skin rashes, fatigue, diarrhea, thyroid tissues, and so on. In certain cases, severe side effects may also occur including autoimmune reactions and infusion reactions.
Summary
Please remember that several countries are still researching immunotherapy. Researchers and scholars such as Dr. Kanury Rao working really hard so that they can come up with curable solutions not just for breast cancer but other cancer types as well. For more details or to learn about immunotherapy for breast cancers and other health conditions, you can check out the research articles by Dr. Rao.
