IMUNOTERAPIA NO COMBATE AO CÂNCER

Immunotherapy is on its way to being an important tool in the fight against cancer, by using the patient's own immune system to fight tumor cells. Based on studies, immunotherapeutic approaches are successful over conventional therapies, representing a new type of alternative. This method has been especially promising in exponentially developing cancer treatments. The immune system is capable of detecting and eliminating tumor cells, however these cells evade, as a way of deceiving the immune system and interfering with responses against them. The mechanism of action of the immunotherapy method, in short, is based on the principle of improving and enabling the patient's own immune system so that it recognizes and fights tumor cells, making it capable of circumventing the immunosuppressive barriers created by cancer cells. In recent years, immunotherapy has reached a significant milestone with the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which block molecules such as PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4, allowing the immune system to more effectively attack tumor cells. Once the PD-L1 and PD-1 interaction is blocked, preexisting anticancer T cells can have their effector function restored quickly, enabling the secretion or production of cytotoxic mediators necessary to kill tumor cells. Despite advances, immunotherapy faces challenges, such as the variability of response between patients and the high cost of treatment. Given this, research in the area continues to evolve, seeking new strategies to enhance the effectiveness of treatment, it is believed that immunotherapy could become the basic treatment against cancer.