Immunotherapy: A Groundbreaking Approach Marked During 1-7 April Cancer Week

The use of the body's own immune cells in cancer treatment, known as immunotherapy, is considered the greatest advance made in oncological treatments in recent years. This is because immunotherapy is a method that stimulates cells in the immune system to initiate a response. With this characteristic, it can provide complete cure even in some untreatable cancer types. Moreover, unlike chemotherapy, it does not cause serious side effects that reduce the patient's quality of life, such as hair loss, nausea and vomiting. Due to these important benefits it provides in cancer treatment, research on immunotherapy continues at full pace in the medical world. Medical Oncology Specialist Prof. Dr. Gökhan Demir points out that, unlike chemotherapy, quite successful results are achieved in immunotherapy which targets the immune system rather than the tumor, stating: "The most important contribution immunotherapy has made to the field of oncology is its ability to provide complete cure even in some untreatable cancer types. For example; metastatic lung, colon and stomach cancers were previously untreatable diseases. Of course not all cases, but in patients with certain genetic defects in these cancer types, we are seeing miraculous results that excite us greatly. We believe that in the near future immunotherapy will become an indispensable part of all oncological treatments." Stating that the era in which chemotherapy, the most severe treatment method in cancer, was the sole treatment option for many cancer types has now ended, Medical Oncology Specialist Prof. Dr. Gökhan Demir points out that today, thanks to methods such as targeted therapies, biological treatments and immunotherapies, even cancers that were previously untreatable can now be kept under control for years.

A turning point in the fight against cancer

Immunotherapy is actually a treatment approach that has been known to the medical world since the 1970s. Initially, immune-stimulating agents such as cytokines and interferons caused great excitement in the medical world. However, despite stimulating and activating the immune system with these agents, it did not recognize cancer cells as enemies, and therefore could not mount an adequate response. As a result, the use of these drugs remained limited to certain cancer types such as malignant melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. However, the medical world did not give up and continued research to understand how cancer manages to evade the immune system. In these studies, it was understood that in the process of eliminating cancer cells without damaging the body itself, there is a very complex interaction among immune system elements; and that this interaction is controlled in many different ways at various levels.