Immunotherapy is the use of drugs to help a person’s own immune system recognise and destroy cancer cells.
There are different types of immunotherapy drugs that work in different ways. These are:
- Monoclonal antibodies – help the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.
- Immune system modulators – can either boost the immune system (increase its activity) or suppress the immune system (reduce its activity).
- Check-point inhibitors – turn off signals that stop immune cells from responding to cancer cells, which sustains its ability to fight the cancer.
- CAR-T cell therapy – alters a patient’s own immune cells so they can better find and attack cancer cells.
- Bispecific Antibodies – bind to immune cells and to cancer cells at the same time, enabling the immune cells to better attack cancer cells.
- Vaccines – give the immune system advance warning of diseases.
There are side effects to immunotherapy. Sometimes it can make the immune system overactive and cause it to attack healthy cells in the body. This can cause side effects known as immune-related adverse events (irAEs).
Side effects may include:
- Skin reactions at the needle site (rash, pain, swelling redness, itchiness)
- Flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, weakness, dizziness, trouble breathing, headache, fatigue, changes to blood pressure, muscle or join aches)
- Nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea
- Swelling and weight gain from fluid retention
- Organ inflammation
- Heart palpitations
- Mouth sores
- Changes in vision (blurry, double or loss of vision).
Side effects will depend on the type of immunotherapy you receive.
