🧬 Is Immunotherapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?

An In-Depth Look at the Next Breakthrough in Cancer Care

By Carcinoma Hospital | Raipur’s Leading Day-Care Cancer Hospital

Cancer treatment has come a long way — from surgery and chemotherapy to now precision medicine and immunotherapy. At Carcinoma Care Center, we believe in not just treating cancer, but also helping our patients understand the latest global advances that may soon be available right here in Raipur.

One such game-changing approach is Immunotherapy. But is it truly the future of cancer treatment?

🌿 What Is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that activates your body’s own immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells — just like it would fight infections or viruses.

Unlike chemotherapy, which kills both healthy and cancerous cells, immunotherapy trains your immune system to specifically target only cancer cells, reducing side effects and improving long-term outcomes.

Types of immunotherapy include:

• Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (like Keytruda)

• CAR-T Cell Therapy

• Cytokine Therapy

• Cancer Vaccines

💉 How Does Immunotherapy Work?

Here’s a simple breakdown:

1. Cancer cells sometimes "hide" from your immune system by turning off immune responses.

2. Immunotherapy drugs like checkpoint inhibitors help "re-activate" immune cells (T-cells) to recognize and destroy those hidden cancer cells.

3. In other cases, the patient’s own T-cells are genetically modified outside the body (CAR-T therapy) and reinfused to kill cancer cells more aggressively.

It’s like giving your immune system superpowers to do what it was designed to do — fight and eliminate threats.

⚖️ Immunotherapy vs. Chemotherapy: What’s the Difference?

Feature	Chemotherapy	Immunotherapy
Mechanism	Directly kills cells (including healthy ones)	Boosts immune system to attack cancer
Side Effects	Hair loss, nausea, fatigue, low immunity	Usually milder (fever, rashes, fatigue)
Target	Non-specific	Highly specific
Effectiveness	Works for many cancers but often short-term	Can offer long-term remission in some cancers
Treatment Setting	Often in multiple cycles	May require fewer infusions or injections

👩‍⚕️ Is It the Future of Cancer Treatment?

In many ways, yes. Immunotherapy is:

• Already helping lung cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and certain blood cancers

• Less toxic than chemotherapy

• Being integrated into multi-modal cancer treatment plans globally

However, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some cancers don’t respond well to immunotherapy, and patient-specific factors determine its success.

✅ How Is Carcinoma Care center Using It?

At Carcinoma, we’ve already started administering immunotherapy injections as part of advanced care for eligible patients. Medications such as:

• Nivolumab

• Pembrolizumab (Keytruda)

are being used successfully in treating cancers like:

• Lung cancer

• Bladder cancer

• Head & neck cancer

• Advanced melanoma

We’ve observed strong clinical responses and quality-of-life improvements in several patients who chose immunotherapy over conventional chemotherapy.

🏥 Why Choose Carcinoma for Immunotherapy?

✔️ Day-care setting – No hospital admission required

✔️ Affordable access to breakthrough drugs

✔️ Administered under expert oncologist supervision

✔️ Zero waiting time, personalised care

✔️ Cashless options available for eligible schemes like CSEB