Cancer Patients in UK to Receive Immunotherapy Drugs via Single Injection for Faster Treatment | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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Cancer Patients in UK to Receive Immunotherapy Drugs via Single Injection for Faster Treatment

Posted 03 May 2025

2 min read

The UK has introduced a faster method of administering Nivolumab (an immunotherapy drug) via a 15-minute injection, replacing the traditional hour-long IV (intravenous) drip for quicker treatment of cancers.

About immunotherapy

  • Definition: Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy that utilizes components of a person’s immune system to fight diseases like cancer.
    • Biological Therapy: This treatment uses substances derived from living organisms to target and treat cancer.
    • Chemotherapy: In contrast, chemotherapy directly targets cancer cells to stop their growth and spread, but it may also damage healthy cells.
  • How Immunotherapy Works?
    • Stimulating immune system: So that it can work harder or smarter in recognizing and attacking cancer cells. E.g., Immunomodulators.
  • Creating immune system components in a lab: So as to restore or improve the immune system’s ability to find and destroy cancer cells. E.g., Monoclonal Antibodies.

Advantages of immunotherapy

  • Precise: The immune system can target cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
  • Dynamic: It adapts and re-evaluates to launch new attacks if a tumor evades detection.
  • Remembers: The immune system’s memory allows it to recognize and eliminate recurring cancer.

Disadvantages of immunotherapy

  • Less effective for "immune suppression" and "immune exclusion" tumours due to high selectivity.
  • Its effectiveness varies, making patient survival rates and prognosis uncertain.
  • Treatment costs are high.
  • Tags :
  • Immunotherapy
  • Chemotherapy
  • Biological Therapy
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