What is "immunotherapy"

n. 1 (context immunology English) The treatment of disease by adjusting the body's immune response. 2 (context oncology English) The treatment of cancer by improving the ability of the host to reject a tumour immunologically.

n. therapy designed to produce immunity to a disease or to enhance resistance by the immune system

Immunotherapy is the " treatment of disease by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response". Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.

Immunomodulatory regimens often have fewer side effects than existing drugs, including less potential for creating resistance in microbial disease.

Cell-based immunotherapies are effective for some cancers. Immune effector cells such as lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells (NK Cell), cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), etc., work together to defend the body against cancer by targeting abnormal antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells.

Therapies such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), interferons, imiquimod and cellular membrane fractions from bacteria are licensed for medical use. Others including IL-2, IL-7, IL-12, various chemokines, synthetic cytosine phosphate-guanosine (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotides and glucans are involved in clinical and preclinical studies.

Immunotherapy is a monthly peer reviewed medical journal covering immunology and more specifically immunotherapy. It was established in 2009 and is published by Future Medicine.. The founding editor-in-chief was Duc Hong Le. The current editors-in-chief are Y. Kawakami, F.M. Marincola, K. Tsang and D.C. Wraith.