Cancer: Immunotherapy Complications*

In the United States, an estimated 2.1 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year. Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that utilizes your own immune cells to identify cancer cells and destroy them. Different forms of immunotherapy are used to treat cancer including:

• Immune checkpoint inhibitors: a treatment that blocks the immune system’s internal process for restricting immune system responses, thus allowing it to recognize, target, and destroy cancer cells.
• T-cell transfer therapy: T cells are a type of white blood cell that locate cancer cells and other threats in the body and direct the immune system to attack. In this therapy, lab technicians identify which immune cells are most effective at attacking the cancer, multiply those cells in the lab, and re-administer them to the patient.
• Monoclonal antibodies: a type of therapy utilizing immune system proteins created in a lab. Some forms of monoclonal antibodies work with the patient’s immune system by identifying and marking cancer cells for the immune system to attack.
  Immunotherapy is a common treatment option for numerous cancers; however, it has significant and sometimes severe side effects.

Patients with immunotherapy complications can experience:

Complications of immunotherapy can vary by treatment form.

• Immune checkpoint inhibitors: when the immune system’s natural regulatory process is overridden, overactivation of the immune system can result in complications, including immune cells mistakenly attacking healthy human tissue.
• T-cell transfer therapy: The rapid increase and activation of T-cells and large immune system response can cause the immune system to overreact, resulting in side effects ranging from mild flu-like symptoms to severe and sometimes fatal organ failure.
• Monoclonal antibodies: Occasionally, the lab designed immune system proteins can be recognized as an invader by the body. This can trigger an allergic reaction to the treatment, an overreaction of the immune system resulting in system-wide inflammation or autoimmune responses, where the body attacks healthy human cells.

ACT research partners at the University of Minnesota and Fred Hutchison Cancer Center are investigating the impact of Microbiota Transplant Therapy in preventing complications from immunotherapy in cancer treatment.