Immune System Challenges Cancer

Online, March 10, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Immune System Challenges Cancer
Cell Therapy Brings Refreshing Hope

Cancer, as a word is in itself potent enough to send cold shivers down the spine of the readers. The trauma that the cancer patients go through in various treatments medical science has traditionally offered for this menace justifies the fear for it. Add to it the relatively low rates of survival and one would not be surprised to know that it is a leading cause of deaths. Scientific experiments have lent substance to the latest technological developments wherein the cancer affected human body's own immune system is enhanced to fight this dreaded disease. This revolutionary technique is known as Dendritic Cell Therapy (DCT).

Cancer treatments have primarily revolved around Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy and their different combinations. All these treatments are prone to major side effects such as permanent organ damage, loss in nervous system activity, infertility, memory loss, another cancer and even death. All these therapies hamper the immune system of the body as well, by killing both cancerous and healthy cells. This is because they lack specificity in attacking cancerous cells.

That is why Biological Therapy or Immunotherapy is increasingly gaining acceptance as a novel approach to cancer treatment. It has a synergistic effect when combined with chemo and/or radiation therapy. What sets it apart from other therapies is that it works by using the body's own defense mechanisms to fight the disease, either directly or indirectly. Biological therapies employ natural body substancesor drugs made from natural body substances to identify and attack specific cancer cells without harming normal cells. Biological therapeutics is highly specific as they are designed to target specific tumor markers.

Amongst the different types of Biological/Immunotherapy, Dendritic Cell Therapy has been successfully proclaimed as the most effective form of Cancer treatment. The Dendritic Cell itself is an immune cell whose role is the recognition, processing and presentation of foreign antigens to the immune system. Although Dendritic Cells are potent cells, they are not usually present in adequate quantity to allow for an active immune response. Dendritic Cell Therapy thus involves the harvesting of blood cells from a patient and processing them in the laboratory to produce Dendritic Cells which are then given back to a patient in order to allow massive dendritic participation in optimally activating the immune system. The body acceptance is significant as the treatment is by means of the body's own cells. It scores where other Cancer treatments fail miserably. It does not harm the non cancerous healthy cells of the body and is also specific in its treatment. This is reflected in the lesser number of side effects, which can only be classified as mild, such as temporary tiredness.

As per the ICMR report, more than 70% of the cases report for diagnostic and treatment services in the advanced stages of the disease, which has lead to a poor survival and high mortality rate. Other Cancer treatments have proven to be effective mainly in the short term, and there are high susceptibilities of a Cancer relapse, because Cancer cells have the capability to metastasize and cell remnants express themselves again in different body parts. DCT research has established that it is the most effective treatment to prevent Cancer relapse, as it does not leave any harmful cell remnants. Hence, DCT is the most potent treatment when combined with other conventional forms of treatment, as it also neutralizes the side effects of other treatments.

DCT has been successfully implemented in different parts of Europe, USA and Russia and it has shown increasing promise in India as well. The treatment is easy to administer and its one course is completed in less than 10 days. There are many good information sources available on the internet about Dendritic Cell Therapy. The Dendritic Cell Therapy has given a new definition to Cancer Treatment. With the doctors showing increasing confidence in the treatment, the medical fraternity seems to be confident and fully loaded to remove the fear of Cancer from the minds of one and all.