New Jersey Hematology Oncology

Medical Professionals What Is Immunotherapy?

Dr. Apurv Agrawal

If you watch the news, commercials on television, or surf the internet, you can’t help but hear about the new “rage” in cancer treatment, immunotherapy.

The immune system is the body’s defense system against “foreign” invaders like infections, abnormal cells, and disease. The body typically fails in defending against cancer cells. That happens because cancer cells are often the body’s own cells which have mutated. Also, cancer cells have the ability to escape or overpower the immune system. Immunotherapy helps the immune system to identify cancer cells as abnormal cells. By doing so the immune system is then able to try to fight and destroy the cancer cells as it would do in the case of an infection.

Immunotherapy is not appropriate for all cancer patients or all types of cancer. In some cases immunotherapy is added with traditional chemotherapy to treat cancer. In certain cancers testing is performed on the cancer/tumor itself to see if the cancer would respond to immunotherapy. The test that is typically performed is called PD-L1. PD-L1 is a biomarker often seen on cancer cells and may predict if immunotherapy New Jersey Hematology Oncology Associates would be effective. There are a number of immunotherapy products that are currentl available. There trade names include: Yervoy, Opdivo, Girish Amin, M.D. Apurv Agrawal, M.D. Jayne Pavlak-Schenk, D.O. Randi Katz, D.O. Sara Kovaly, A.P.N Keytruda, Tecentriq, and Brick • 1608 Route 88 West, Suite 250 • (732) 840-8880 Imfinzi. Toms River • 508 Lakehurst Rd., Suite 1-B • (732) 244-1440 Whiting • 63D lacey Rd. • (732) 206-6226 Neptune • 19 Davis Ave. • (732) 206-6226

For more information, call 732-840-8880 or visit www.NJHOA.com.

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