Begone, Cancer

Immunotherapy is one of the newest ways of combating cancer, and it has great promise. One of the most prevalent, well-known cancer treatments is chemotherapy. "Chemo" comes from the Latin root meaning chemical, and "therapy" is, well, therapy. Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals to cure cancer, or rather to kill cancer cells. The problem is that the drugs used in chemotherapy are so potent that they also kill healthy cells, leading to hair loss and weakness. Of course, that's better than suffering from cancer, but it definitely isn't ideal. Instead of killing healthy cells, immunotherapy utilizes the body's cells and immune system to combat cancer from within. Our bodies have a robust, deadly immune system. Unfortunately, our immune system does not recognize cancer cells, since they identify cancer cells as normal cells. Immunotherapy marks cancer cells for the immune system to attack, allowing the entire body to mobilize against cancer. Due to the memory of the immune system, this even has some potential for recognizing and killing future cancers without additional treatment. Although we are still far from this, immunotherapy definitely offers this possibility. However, one of the primary problems with immunotherapy (besides it not being fully developed and tested) is that it would not work as well for immunocompromised people. In particular, cancer cells can hijack and shut down the immune system, leading to many cancer patients becoming immunocompromised and preventing immunotherapy. To address this, scientists are researching ways to restart the immune system in addition to marking cancer cells. Hopefully, using this treatment or the several other promising treatment methods, cancer will be fully treatable in the next few decades.