Immunotherapy is a new class of cancer treatment that uses the power of your own immune system to fight cancer.
This treatment approach uses substances made by the body or in a laboratory to stimulate or direct the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
For ovarian cancer, immunotherapy is an important new approach toward eradicating cancer cells, reducing treatment side effects and toxicity, making progress against chemotherapy-resistant disease, and improving the chance for long-term remission. Some options are already FDA-approved and others are available through a clinical trial. These include:
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors help to optimize the immune system’s attack on cancer. Immune cells and some cancers have certain proteins that work to keep the immune system in check. These drugs block the proteins, releasing the brakes on the immune system and improving the cancer-fighting effect. Keytruda is a checkpoint inhibitor that may benefit patients with ovarian cancer.
- Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies use your own T-cells (special white blood cells) to fight cancer. Your T-cells are removed in a process similar to a blood donation, and then grown in the laboratory so that there are millions of them. They may also be re-engineered or changed to better find and destroy cancer cells. The supercharged T-cells are then returned to your body through an intravenous (IV) infusion to begin working against the cancer.
- Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy uses immune cells that have already proven they can find and infiltrate the tumor. The cells are retrieved from the removed tumor tissue, multiplied into millions in a laboratory and infused back into the patient.
Roswell Park is a pioneer in immunotherapy
As a Comprehensive Cancer Center designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Roswell Park’s researchers and clinicians are part of the worldwide effort to develop new and better cancer therapies. Roswell Park was selected to be part of an Ovarian Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), funded by the NCI, which focuses research on immune-based approaches in ovarian cancer.