What is Immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is also known as biological therapy or biotherapy for short. It stimulates or restores the ability of the body's immune system to fight infection and disease, in this case, cancer cells. It is also used to protect the body from some of the side effects of certain treatments. It involves the use of substances called biological response modifiers (BRMs). The body usually only produce small amounts of such substances in response to infection and disease, but with modern laboratory techniques, scientists can produce BRMs in large amounts for use in the treatment of cancer.
Side Effects
The side effects of immunotherapy are usually short-term effects, and will gradually subside after the treatments ends. They include:
- Chills
- Fever
- Muscle aches
- Weakness
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Rashes
- Bleed or bruise easily
References
Websites:
http://www.medicinenet.com/biological_therapy/article.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/92230/cancer/224746/Biological-therapies#ref750560
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0302/074_cancer_miracles.html/