Cancer is the most difficult disease to cure, and it afflicts millions of lives worldwide. Different treatment processes have been discovered throughout history, the most prevalent being chemotherapy. While chemotherapy is worthwhile on a large scale, it has large-scale drawbacks in the form of heavy side effects and sparse long-term outcomes. Compared with this, immunotherapy is changing cancer therapy by an efficient and targeted method with fewer side effects.
Immunotherapy is more and more common in most countries, like India, as an alternative to prefer over patients. With better accessibility of immunotherapy in India, more and more patients can take advantage of having less toxic yet better therapies to treat cancer now. This blog tries to show how immunotherapy is preferable to chemotherapy based on its advantages, mechanism of action, efficacy, and future perspectives.
Chemotherapy: A Time-Honored Cancer Treatment
Chemotherapy is the use of potent drugs that destroy cells that are growing rapidly, such as cancer cells. While the treatment can shrink tumors and prevent disease from worsening, it destroys normal cells as well and results in many side effects.
Action of Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy drugs travel all over the body in the blood, destroying all fast-growing cells, including:
- Cancer cells: the target of the treatment.
- Hair follicle cells: resulting in hair loss.
- Digestive tract cells: nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- Bone marrow cells: immune suppression through reduced white blood cell counts.
While chemotherapy is still a fundamental part of cancer treatment, its non-specific nature makes it very toxic to the body. Patients typically suffer from:
- Severe weakness and tiredness
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Increased risk of infection
- Organ damage (kidney, liver, heart, etc.)
- Secondary cancers as a result of DNA damage that can occur
Although used extensively, chemotherapy is not always successful in bringing about remission for several years. Most patients relapse after treatment and need to undergo further procedures. This is where immunotherapy is a game-changer in treatment.
What Is Immunotherapy?
Immunotherapy is a new form of cancer treatment that enhances the body’s natural immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy kills and destroys cancer cells directly, whereas immunotherapy teaches the immune system to identify and kill cancerous tumors more effectively.
How Immunotherapy Works
The body’s immune system will automatically fight off disease and infection, but cancer cells do have a mechanism to avoid the immune system. Immunotherapy can get around this limitation by:
- Augmenting the immune response: activating T-cells and other immune factors to destroy cancer.
- Suppressing the defense mechanism of cancer: utilizing checkpoint inhibitors to deactivate the “brakes” on immune cells.
- Amplifying immune memory: Allowing the body to remember and prevent the recurrence of cancer.
With greater developments in cancer research, immunotherapy in India is also making waves, and the therapy being offered to patients who look for long-term, less toxic therapy is on the rise.
Types of Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is an umbrella term for some of the newest-generation therapies. The most prevalent ones are:
- Checkpoint Inhibitors
- Checkpoint Inhibitors
- Checkpoint Inhibitors
Checkpoint inhibitors remove the brakes of the immune system and allow T-cells to attack cancer cells more aggressively. Checkpoint inhibitors are highly effective in treating melanoma, lung cancer, and bladder cancer.
- Monoclonal Antibodies
These synthetic proteins selectively target cancer cells but do not harm normal tissues. These tag cancer cells so that they can be easily recognized and killed by the immune system. - CAR T Cell Therapy
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is the use of gene modification to prepare a patient’s immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer more effectively. It has been extremely effective against blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. - Cancer Vaccines
Cancer vaccines differ from the rest of the vaccines in the way that they teach the immune system how to fight the cancer cells. They are typically administered to prevent relapse in patients who have already undergone primary therapy for cancer.
Reason Why Immunotherapy Is Better Than Chemotherapy
1. Targeted Action With Less Side Effect
The biggest advantage of immunotherapy is that it’s targeted. While chemotherapy hits all cells that are dividing, good or evil, immunotherapy only hits the cancer cells. This means:
- Less harm to healthy tissues
- Fewer side effects than chemotherapy
- Increased tolerance and improved quality of life for patients
Most patients undergoing immunotherapy suffer fewer side effects like nausea, hair loss, and severe fatigue. That is less demanding, especially for patients who must be highly active during cancer treatment.
2. Long-Term Effectiveness and Sustained Immunity
Whereas chemotherapy loses effectiveness once administered, immunotherapy has a permanent effect. Immunotherapy reduces the risk of cancer relapse by having the immune system prepared to identify cancer cells. That is why it is a great choice for long-term cancer management.
3. Personalized and Dynamic Therapy
Immunotherapy is customized based on one’s genes; hence, it is more effective. This customization makes the treatment:
- More effective for the given type of cancer
- Less likely to produce severe side effects
- Better for long-term cancer therapy
This degree of precision is impossible with chemotherapy, which treats everyone in bulk.
4. Increased Success Rates in Advanced Cancer Patients
Drug-resistant to chemotherapy, cancer patients who are advanced. Over time, the cancer cells develop and mature in a manner that makes them resistant to chemotherapy, making their strength weak. Immunotherapy still works even after they’ve done everything else. Almost all patients who had done everything else have responded extremely well to immunotherapy.
5. Less Chance of Developing Secondary Cancers
Chemotherapy causes DNA damage and is a cause of secondary cancers with a higher risk. Immunotherapy bears no connection to chemical toxins and is, therefore, a less toxic option for long-term therapy.
The Increasing Demand for Immunotherapy in India
Cancer therapy in India has greatly improved, with the top cancer specialists embracing immunotherapy as a first-line treatment. Cancer patients worldwide are flocking to Indi,a owing to the affordability and availability of the country and access to world-class medical centers.
Dr. Vikesh Shah, one of the top oncologists, has been one of the first experts in India to adopt immunotherapy, and he has transformed the lives of numerous cancer patients with his advanced treatments. India is soon becoming a destination for cancer treatment with new-age hospitals and well-trained specialists.
Advantages of Immunotherapy in India
- Reasonable treatments: India is relatively inexpensive compared to Western countries without compromising on quality.
- Expert cancer doctors: India has world-class cancer doctors who have received training in the latest immunotherapy treatments.
- New medicines available: Several internationally approved immunotherapy drugs are available in India today.
- Research centers at international standards: India has a number of research institutes for cancer that are developing innovative therapies.
People from all over the world are now flocking to India for better immunotherapy treatment at an affordable price.
Who Can Benefit from Immunotherapy?
Although immunotherapy is not a cure for all cancers at this time, it is very effective for:
- Lung Cancer
- Melanoma (Skin Cancer)
- Lymphoma
- Bladder Cancer
- Kidney Cancer
- Some Breast and Head & Neck Cancers
More research is ongoing to make it effective for other cancers, so it is a medicine of the future.
Final Thoughts: A New Era in Cancer Treatment
Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of cancer, offering a safer and more effective alternative to chemotherapy. According to Dr. Vikesh Shah, this groundbreaking approach is less toxic, provides long-lasting effects, and is more targeted in action, making it the first-line treatment of choice for most patients.
For those seeking a safer, more effective way to combat cancer, the future is immunotherapy—and it’s already saving lives. For more information, contact us today!