Immunotherapy works either by boosting the natural defences of your immune system so that it works harder to attack cancer cells or by making immune system-like components in a lab and using them to improve your immune system.
Immunotherapy works better for certain types of cancer than for others. It is used by itself or combined with other types of treatment.
Patients should keep in mind that there are some potentially life-threatening side effects of immunotherapy, including high blood pressure, bleeding, blood clots, kidney damage, severe rashes and other serious risks.
You may have treatment every 2–3 weeks in a repeating cycle, with each period of treatment followed by a rest period.
Immunotherapy drugs keep working for varying periods as they act directly on the body’s own immune system, and it can sometimes keep working even long after treatment stops. It helped more than 15 per cent of people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer live for at least five years.
Immunotherapy is one of the most expensive cancer treatments available and can easily cost over USD 13,273 in India.
