Immunostimulating therapies are therapies designed to modify how the body’s immune system reacts to cancer cells. Certain therapies provide immune defenses with added strength, while others focus on repairing a compromised immune system.
Allogeneic lymphocyte therapy is a type of immunostimulation that involves harvesting T-cells from a donor and introducing those cancer-killing cells into an unrelated patient. The T-cells are relocated via a vaccine-type therapy with a track record for driving T-cell production and increasing a patient’s count of dendritic cells. These cells play a key role in the body’s fight against invading pathogens. Oasis of Hope has had success with this approach to cancer treatment and has started research on a similar vaccine using interleukin-2, a critically important substance found in select immune system cells.