Biotherapy

What is biotherapy?

Biological therapy for cancer is a type of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to kill cancer cells. It's used in the treatment of many types of cancer to prevent or slow tumour growth and to prevent the spread of cancer. Biological therapy for cancer often causes fewer toxic side effects than other cancer treatments.

The goal of biological therapy for cancer is to induce your immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells. Your body’s immune system fights germs and bacteria throughout your body. Your immune system should also recognise cancer cells as abnormal, but it doesn’t always do that. Cancer cells can develop an ability to hide from immune system cells. Or cancer cells can disable or inhibit immune system cells from acting.

How does biotherapy work?

In general, biological therapies work by:

• Inducing the immune system to attack cancer cells. There are several ways biological therapy treatments can achieve this goal, for example, chemicals that stimulate your immune system cells could be injected into your body.
• Making cancer cells easier for your immune system to recognise. Biological therapy can also target the cancer cells, turning on or off cell signals that help them elude the immune system cells. For example, drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors can target specific chemical receptors on cancer cells, blocking the signals the cancer cells send to suppress the immune system.

Is biotherapy right for me?

We offer biotherapy treatments for patients with the following cancers:

• Biliary cancer
• Bowel cancer
• Breast cancer
• Cancer of unknown primary
• Liver cancer
• Oesophageal cancer
• Oral / mouth cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Renal cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Thyroid cancer