Immunotherapy, Biotherapy, Biological Therapy, Biologic Therapy for Cancer Treatment

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Immunotherapy, Biotherapy, Biological Therapy, Biologic Therapy for Cancer Treatment
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Biological therapy, also known as immunotherapy, biotherapy or biologic therapy, is a form of treatment that uses your own body’s immune system. Your immune system is one of the body’s main defenses against infection and disease via various means.

Immunotherapy is crafted to repair, stimulate or enhance your own immune system’s responses to foreign cells, like cancer.

Your natural immune system is a highly complex network capable of combating a myriad of invaders. Some supportive immune system substances can now be produced in the laboratory, and are being utilized in the treatment of cancer.

These biotherapy substances are collectively referred to as biological response modifiers, or BRMs.

The purpose of biologic therapy using BRMs is to boost, direct or restore your body’s ability to specifically fight a certain infection or disease, such as cancer. Various types of biological response modifiers include:

* vaccines
* interferons
* interleukins
* gene therapy
* monoclonal antibodies
* colony-stimulating factors
* nonspecific immunomodulating agents

BRMs may be used alone, in combination with each other or with traditional radiation and chemotherapy cancer treatments. Cancer fighting biological therapies may be employed to:

* prevent the spread of cancer cells
* alter the growth patterns of cancer cells
* boost the killing power of immune system cells
* stop, control or suppress processes that permit cancer to grow
* block or reverse the process that changes a normal cell into a cancerous one
* make cancer cells more recognizable, thus more susceptible to immune system destruction
* enhance the body’s ability to repair or replace normal cells damaged or destroyed by other forms of cancer treatments

As with the traditional forms of cancer treatment, immunotherapy can cause side effects, like:

* fever
* rashes
* fatigue
* diarrhea
* swelling
* bone pain
* bruise easily
* appetite loss
* muscle aches
* flu like symptoms
* lower blood pressure

Some BRMs are already an integrated part of certain cancer treatments, whereas others are still in the clinical trial phase.

Research is ongoing in this newfangled form of cancer treatment. And numerous advances are being made regularly toward a more healthy future, in spite of cancer.

Biotherapy is also being used in the treatment of other diseases, such as:

* Crohn’s disease
* ulcerative colitis
* rheumatoid arthritis
* autoimmune diseases
* inflammatory bowel disease

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