Immunotherapy for Kidney Cancer

Joseph I. Clark, MD Immunotherapy, a type of treatment designed to enhance or restore the body’s ability to fight cancerous cells by activating the immune system, has long been a mainstay of treatment for kidney cancer, and continues to attract considerable attention from oncologists and patients alike. The attention is not only due to the clinical benefits that patients continue to experience with immunotherapy, but also to the apparent promise of newer immunotherapeutic agents that are currently being investigated in clinical trials. Although surgical resection (removal) of the kidney is often used in patients with localized kidney cancer (i.e., that which has not spread beyond the kidney), immunotherapy and molecular-targeted therapy are generally considered standard of care in patients with metastatic disease (i.e., that which has spread to other organs). Consequently, the stage of the patient’s cancer, as well as the rate and extent of metastasis (spread), will usually determine which type of therapy the patient will receive. Immunotherapy is a type of biological response modification therapy, so called because it is designed to improve the body’s natural response to disease. A number of immunotherapeutic approaches have been investigated in the treatment of cancer. One approach focuses on cytokines, proteins secreted by cells of the immune system that serve to regulate the immune system. Cytokines such as interferons (IFNs) and interleukins have act...
Source: Kidney Cancer Association - Category: Urology & Nephrology Source Type: news