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Immunotherapy |
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| The aim of cancer immunology is to develop
new approaches to fighting cancer by enhancing the body's natural immune defense system.
These new immune activating therapies are referred to as immunotherapy or
sometimes Biologic Therapy. Antibodies and the Immune System |
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Monoclonal antibodies (MABs or MOABs) work on cancer cells in the same way natural antibodies work, by identifying and binding to the target cells. They then alert other cells in the immune system to the presence of the cancer cells. MABs are specific for a particular antigen - one designed for a |
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B-cell lymphoma will not work on cells for ovarian cancer cells for example. Vaccines Vaccines are another method to stimulate an immune response. One method that has been used to make a cancer vaccine: researchers harvested patients immune cells - such as dendritic cells - from their own blood, primed them to trigger an attack on tumor cells, and then returned them to the patients. The researchers primed the cells by bathing them in a solution containing large quantities of the tumor's unique cell-surface protein.
T-Cell Immunotherapy is a new and exciting area just going into trials after about ten years of study and research. This process uses the body's T lymphocytes, multiplying them, possibly modifying them, then reinfusing them into the patient to kill lymphoma or other cancers. Hope Research in this field is ongoing. Talk to your medical team about the latest advances in this field. Clinical trials are ongoing in many places and papers are being written documenting advances in the field. Web Resources
Multimedia Resources (updated)
Return Links - Conditions: [Adult Hodgkin's]
[Adult Non-Hodgkin's] Return Links - Therapy: [Chemotherapy] [Chemo Drugs] [Radiotherapy] [Transplants] Other pages you may want to visit: This page is a work in progress - if you have more complete information, references, or other information please contact the author. The author is not in the medical field and does not warrant the correctness of the material on this page or the sites linked - please take online information and consult with your own medical team to make informed decisions. Copyright © 1998-2005 Lymphoma Information
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