Can you do immunotherapy if you have an autoimmune disease?
Autoimmune diseases
occur when the immune system goes awry and starts to attack the body's healthy
tissues. Immunotherapy drugs, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, “release
the brakes” on the immune system, allowing immune cells to detect and attack
tumor cells.
Immunotherapy drugs
enhance the ability of the immune system to detect and kill tumor cells. In
recent years, these therapies have benefited a growing number of patients,
including some patients with advanced cancers. In some patients,
immunotherapy can cause the immune system to recognize some of the body’s
healthy tissues as foreign and attack them. This can lead to side effects such
as inflammation of the inner lining of the colon, the lungs, or heart muscle.
“One of the main
reasons for doing the trial is that immunotherapy has cured some patients with
metastatic cancer”. “If we can learn how to use immunotherapy to treat
people with both cancer and autoimmune diseases, then we could offer these
patients potentially curative therapy”. Steroids
and immune suppressants help to take down the inflammation and calm the immune
system. Although only about 5% of patients on immunotherapy experience these
side effects, that number is thought to be higher in patients with autoimmune
diseases.
In general, a positive response to
immunotherapy is measured by a shrinking or stable tumour. Although treatment
side effects such as inflammation may be a sign that immunotherapy is affecting
the immune system in some way, the precise link between immunotherapy side
effects and treatment success is unclear.
Comments
Post a Comment