Can we treat cancer by activating the body’s own defence system?

Did you know that by boosting the body’s own immune defences* it is possible to treat cancer and even completely destroy malignant tumours? 

Cancer treatments are getting better. In the past, treatments focused on targeted drugs that directly attacked the tumour cells. 

But today, we can also fight cancer with treatments that try to destroy the tumour by activating the body’s own immune defences. This type of treatment is called immunological cancer treatment or immunotherapy. 

Reetta Virtakoivu, Orion’s Senior Scientist, is working on ways to develop new and more effective immunological cancer treatments.

What does immunological cancer treatment mean, Reetta Virtakoivu?

“Immunological cancer treatment, or immunotherapy, is a form of cancer treatment that does not try to kill cancer cells directly with drug compounds as in traditional cancer treatments*. Instead, immunotherapy activates the body’s own defence system.

“More precisely, immunotherapy aims to boost the activity of certain cells in the body that are responsible for immune defence. I call them the body’s defence cells or immune cells* because their job is to keep bacteria and viruses that are foreign to the body under control. Immunotherapy is an attempt to get the immune cells to identify the cancerous tumour and attack the cancer cells.” 

So what exactly happens in the human body during immunological cancer treatments?

“When a person has cancer, immune cells can recognise that the cancer cells are harmful to the body and try to destroy them. However, cancer cells can often disguise themselves so that the immune cells think they are good cells that are natural to the body. 

This is partly because cancer cells bind themselves to the surface of certain immune cells. The immune cells think that the cancer cells do not need to be destroyed and as a result, the body’s immune system does not work as it should.

In immunotherapy, the aim is either to boost or block the activity of immune cells. Immunotherapy can therefore be used to prevent a cancer cell binding to an immune cell, or to activate the immune cell so that it destroys the cancer cells more effectively.”

What are the advantages of immunotherapy over traditional cancer treatments?

“Immunotherapy has revolutionised cancer treatment. It has been successfully used to treat patients whose cancer is resistant to traditional treatments. For example, in metastatic melanoma, patients can have a long-lasting response to treatment* or even be cured of their cancer altogether even if traditional cancer treatments have not been effective.

Moreover, immunological cancer treatments are generally better tolerated and cause fewer side effects than, for example, cytostatic treatments. This is because the drugs used in cytostatic treatment kill both the cancer cells and the healthy cells in the body as well.”

Will immunotherapy solve all the challenges of cancer treatment?

“Immunological cancer treatments are not a magic cure that works for everyone. Immunotherapy only helps around 10–20 per cent of cancer patients. The use of these treatments has been partly held back by the difficulty of knowing in advance who will benefit from them.

The treatments are expensive and can have side effects, although they are not as severe as those with traditional cancer treatments. When the immune system is activated, it can lead to reactions similar to those in autoimmune diseases, such as rashes and gastro-intestinal problems.”

What types of cancer is immunotherapy most suitable for?

“In addition to metastatic melanoma, immunotherapy is most effective for certain cancers such as lung, bladder, kidney and head and neck cancers.

Immunotherapy is a new treatment option alongside surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and radiotherapy. If one treatment doesn’t work, it is possible to try another. Different cancer treatments are often also used at the same time.”

What is happening in immunology right now?

“There is a lot of research into immunological cancer treatments, but it has been surprisingly challenging to discover new, potent cancer drug target proteins*.

“Cancer immunotherapy currently mainly targets only a few target proteins. New cell therapies* and antibody therapies* have been and continue to be tested in clinical trials, but their effectiveness remains to be seen. I do believe that it is worth investing in finding new target proteins and that challenges that seem impossible can be solved with new innovative ideas.”

Please tell us more about the future of immunological cancer treatment.

“I’m confident that in the future, more and more cancer patients will receive and benefit from immunological cancer treatments. Existing immunological drugs can be administered in combination to see if blocking several parts of the immune cell or different immune cells at the same time could lead to a better treatment response. In addition, there are efforts to develop new drugs that can act on several immune cell target proteins at the same time.

“There is also research into the immune cells that are affected by drugs that have already been approved, and into how to identify patients who might benefit from immunotherapy.”