What are biological cancer treatments?

Biological cancer treatments use the body's immune system to fight cancer. This can be done in several ways, such as:

* Stimulating the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. This can be done with immune checkpoint inhibitors, which block proteins that suppress the immune system's response to cancer.

* Providing the immune system with extra ammunition to fight cancer. This can be done with adoptive cell therapy, which involves taking a patient's own immune cells, modifying them so that they are better able to recognize and attack cancer cells, and then reinjecting them into the patient.

* Using antibodies to target cancer cells. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins that can recognize and bind to a specific antigen, which is a molecule that triggers an immune response. In cancer therapy, monoclonal antibodies can be used to deliver radiation or chemotherapy directly to cancer cells or to block the growth of blood vessels that tumors need to survive.

Biological cancer treatments have shown promise in treating a variety of cancers, including melanoma, lung cancer, and lymphoma. However, they can also cause side effects, such as fatigue, rash, and fever. These treatments are still under investigation, and their long-term effectiveness and safety are still being studied.