Cancer treatment with immunotherapy

Every day, several tens of thousands of mutated cells appear in the human body, which can potentially give rise to a cancerous tumor. These defective cells are recognized by the immune system and promptly destroyed. Oncological disease develops only if there is a malfunction in the immune system. As a result, the tumor can grow for years and make itself felt only when there are not so many opportunities for its radical removal.

The cells of the human body, which, as a result of genetic breakdowns, have switched to malignant growth, differ from healthy cells. This allows oncoimmunologists to create individual vaccines for patients – drugs that enable the immune system to recognize the tumor and direct all its efforts to destroy it. The altered cells are destroyed, while the normal cells remain intact.

In practice, this is implemented as follows:

• Based on the antigens of the patient’s tumor tissue, an individual vaccine is created.
• Specialists work with the patient’s own dendritic cells, which can inform the immune system.
• The vaccine is “enhanced” by an oncolytic virus that can only enter cancer cells and does not affect healthy ones.
• The vaccine containing the virus is injected into the patient’s body.
• Additionally, local and controlled general hyperthermia procedures can be prescribed to activate the immune system

Let’s consider each of the stages in more detail.

Cancer vaccination

The cancer vaccine is autologous, meaning it is made from tumor samples taken from a specific patient. From the fragments of cancerous tissue obtained during the biopsy, specific antigen proteins are isolated, which must be recognized by the immune system to effectively destroy the tumor.

Oncolytic virus

For treatment, a certain type of virus is used, which can infect and multiply only in tumor cells, ignoring healthy ones. The penetration of the virus into the cell during cancer immunotherapy becomes an additional marker for the attack of the immune system.

Complementary hyperthermia

Depending on the method of the procedure, locoregional, transurethral radiofrequency, and moderate general hyperthermia are distinguished. A local or general increase in body temperature is a physiological mechanism that allows the body’s defenses to fight the disease.

To date, the treatment of brain glioma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, some types of leukemia, neuroblastoma and others has been developed. From year to year, the list of oncological diseases for which immunotherapy can be successfully used is expanding.

Cancer cannot be cured with immunotherapy alone.

However, the method allows:

• Reduce the growth rate of the tumor node.
• To increase the effectiveness of ongoing surgical treatment, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy.
• Increase the likelihood of the patient going into remission.
• It is better to control the disease during remission, preventing the development of relapse.

Immunotherapy gives the best results in cases where the tumor is first surgically removed, and then antitumor vaccination with an autologous vaccine is performed simultaneously or after a course of radiation or chemotherapy.

The procedure for creating an individual vaccine, taking into account all the necessary preliminary examinations, is quite expensive.

The price of a vaccine for cancer immunotherapy starts from 18 thousand US dollars, diagnostics costs 4 thousand.

A number of charitable foundations help pay for the treatment of Experts Medical patients. The average amount of financial assistance is about 22 thousand dollars.

Some of our patients received assistance for immunotherapy in the amount of 44 thousand US dollars.

The method is innovative and high-tech. In this regard, sufficient experience in its application has been accumulated only in a small number of foreign centers.  These are the IOZK Immuno-Oncological Center (Cologne, Germany), the Children’s Hospital of San Joan de Deu (Barcelona, Spain), the University Hospital (Cologne, Germany).

In most developed countries, cancer immunotherapy is used:

• Germany,
• Israel
• Japan,
• USA,
• Turkey,
• South Korea and so on.

In Ukraine and Russia in recent years, this method of cancer therapy has begun to develop, there are difficulties with drugs. So, for example, only 12 immunotherapy preparations are registered in Ukraine (more than 70 are already used in world practice). In addition, in European clinics, doctors have much more experience in applying this technique.

The scope of immunotherapy is constantly expanding. Immunotherapy shows the greatest effectiveness in the treatment of lung cancer and melanoma. At the moment, it can also be used in the treatment of:

• pancreatic cancer,
• Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
• neuroblastoma,
• prostate cancer,
• bladder cancer,
• kidney cancer and so on.

So, for example, with progressive melanoma, which is difficult to treat by other methods, the effectiveness of immunotherapy is about 40%. In general, stable remission is achieved in 10-30% of patients after a course of immunotherapy. Considering that these people were doomed in the past due to the inability of doctors to stop cancer with traditional methods, it can be said that immunotherapy offers hope for many patients to overcome cancer.

Another property of immunotherapy that scientists emphasize is that after a course of taking drugs, the immune system “remembers” cancer cells. And if after some time they reappear in the patient’s body, the immune system immediately turns on the mechanism for their destruction.

Immunotherapy in Israel, Germany, Turkey and other countries can be used as the main or additional method of therapy. So, in the first stages of the disease, it is usually used together with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery. In these cases, the task of immunotherapy is to destroy the smallest cancer cells that could remain after the destruction of the tumor, and provide a long period of remission. With metastatic cancer, this type of treatment can be the main one. According to researchers, at the stage of formation of metastases, immunotherapy can reduce the size of the tumor by up to 60%.

Before a patient is given immunotherapy, studies are conducted to determine how sensitive cancer cells in the body will be to this type of treatment. For this, several analyzes are done: cytogenetic, immunogenetic, and immunophenotyping.

There are two types of immunotherapy:

• Local. The immunotherapy drug is injected directly into the tumor area.
• System. The drug is administered intravenously.

The name of the drug, dose and number of procedures are prescribed individually.

Although compared to chemotherapy, immunotherapy has far fewer side effects, they can still occur. They depend on what type of immunotherapy is used. Side effects may occur due to overstimulation of the immune system. So, minor symptoms (eg, nausea, fever, skin rashes) are possible. But in some rare cases, autoimmune disorders (such as type I diabetes or arthritis) can occur.

The price of immunotherapy depends on what type of drugs will be used, what is the dosage and duration of the course. Thus, the manufacture of a drug individually from the patient’s biomaterial will cost more than the use of a ready-made drug. It must be understood that doctors will be able to name the cost of treatment only after tumor studies are carried out.

The Experts Medical service cooperates with reliable and trusted clinics around the world. At your request, Experts Medical medical coordinators will provide you with an individual immunotherapy program free of charge based on your medical situation, which will include information about the medical institution, doctor, cost of examination and treatment. We will also help children under 18 years of age with payment for treatment through foreign funds.