Brain Cancer Treatments – Biotherapy / Immunotherapy

Biotherapy / Immunotherapy for Brain Cancer

The immune system is the body's own natural power of protection against infection and disease. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we believe brain cancer treatment may be enhanced first by understanding, and then by using, the body's immune system.

Brain cancer may develop when the immune system breaks down or is not functioning adequately. Immunotherapy (also called biological therapy, biotherapy, or biological response modifier therapy) is designed to repair, stimulate, or enhance the body’s own immune responses to fight disease. Biotherapy uses the body’s immune system, either directly or indirectly, to fight brain cancer, or to lessen the side effects that may be caused by certain other conventional brain cancer treatments.

CTCA cancer experts use immunotherapy treatments (e.g., interferons, colony stimulating factors) either alone or in conjunction with other brain cancer treatment modalities, such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Biotherapy/Immunotherapy may be used to:

• Stop, control, or suppress processes that permit brain tumor growth
• Make brain cancer cells more recognizable to the immune system, and therefore more susceptible to destruction
• Boost the killing power of the immune system cells, such as T-cells, NK-cells and macrophages
• Alter the growth patterns of brain cancer cells to promote behavior like that of healthy cells
• Block or reverse the process that changes a normal cell or a pre-cancerous cell into a cancerous cell
• Enhance the body’s ability to repair or replace normal cells damaged or destroyed by other forms of brain cancer treatment (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation therapy)
• Prevent brain cancer cells from spreading (metastasizing) to other parts of the body

Next Topic: Complementary Medicine Therapies for Brain Cancer