Colon Cancer Immunotherapy
Many therapies have been proposed in the continuous fight against colon cancer. Some of these therapies have proven to be more effective than others. One of the more promising therapies for treating colon cancer is immunotherapy. It is a much more holistic approach than many other treatment methods and helps the patient’s body fight cancer on its own. Here is what you should know about the benefits and challenges of treating colon cancer with immunotherapy.
In 2019, an estimated 100,000 of new cases of colon cancer emerged. Numbers like that might not seem like a lot, but when you start looking at the big picture, say, 100,000 cases of colon cancer per year, you can see a trend of 1,000,000 cases in ten years. One hundred thousand might seem trivial, but a million people is like the population of a small country, and when you look at the mortality rates, the picture gets even more interesting.
This is why colon cancer awareness is so important. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and start talking about your family history and get screened. Prevention is crucial, and being proactive is the key to prevention. One of the best things you can do for yourself aside from committing to regular screenings is to learn more about the most effective treatments. One of the most intriguing treatment methodologies to date is immunotherapy.
What to Know About colon Cancer Prevention and Immunotherapy
Most immunotherapy methodologies focus on leveraging the patient’s own body to actively seek out, identify, and destroy cancer cells. It works by empowering your own immune system and helping it root out any cancer cells before they cause you any more trouble.
Immunotherapy has displayed impressive success rates when used to treat certain types of cancer including a type of lung cancer and skin cancer. Less is known about immunotherapy’s potential to combat colon cancer.
For those who are afflicted with colon cancer, immunotherapy shows the most promise to patients who exhibit something called mismatch repair deficiency. Patients with mismatch repair deficiency are prone to abnormal rates of mutations including the types of cells that contribute to colon cancer.
This serves to highlight the importance of knowing more about your genetics. Some people are afraid to investigate their genetic predisposition because of the fear of actually being predisposed. No one wants to hear that they are genetically susceptible to contracting colon cancer. As difficult to hear as it may be, information is your best friend in these situations. If you’re genetically predisposed to getting colon cancer, you can focus on prevention to decrease your chances of contracting the disease.
Is Immunotherapy Right for You?
One thing that you should know about immunotherapy is that it’s widely considered to be the last line of defense, or offense, depending on how you look at it. Chemotherapy and surgery are the two most commonly used treatment options. They are used at both to combat colon cancer in both the early and late stages of the disease. It’s only when both surgery and chemotherapy have failed that immunotherapy comes into play.
When colon cancer is caught relatively early, surgery has a fairly high success rate as a treatment. When other treatments have failed, immunotherapy is typically used. There is a lot to learn about immunotherapy and a lot more developments underway. One day, immunotherapy may be considered to be a much more promising treatment.
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