Why not immunotherapy used for treating cancer?

Immunotherapy is used for treating cancer. Several types of immunotherapy are currently being used or actively studied as cancer treatments, including:

1. Immune checkpoint inhibitors: These drugs block the "brakes" on the immune system and allow immune cells to better recognize and target cancer cells. Examples include drugs like pembrolizumab (Keytruda), nivolumab (Opdivo), and atezolizumab (Tecentriq).

2. Adoptive cell therapy: This approach involves modifying a patient's own immune cells or collecting immune cells from a donor, activating and multiplying them in the lab, and then infusing them back into the patient's body to target cancer cells. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy are types of adoptive cell therapy.

3. Cancer vaccines: Cancer vaccines can be used to boost the immune system and help it recognize and attack cancer cells. Some cancer vaccines contain killed or weakened cancer cells, while others may incorporate cancer-specific antigens or genetic material.

4. Oncolytic viruses: These viruses have been genetically modified to selectively infect and destroy cancer cells. While replicating within cancer cells, they release viral particles that further infect neighboring cancer cells, causing cell death and triggering an immune response.

5. Checkpoint modulators: These drugs stimulate or enhance specific immune cells so they can become more effective at identifying and destroying cancer cells. For instance, agonists for certain immune receptors are examples of checkpoint modulators.