Immune-based Therapies
Attacking childhood cancer through innovation
When a cancer proves resistant to traditional therapies like surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, doctors and researchers must search for new ways to treat the disease. Immune-based therapies (IBTs) are a relatively new addition to our list of cancer treatments and many of the therapies show promise. IBTs use the body’s immune system to fight cancer or lessen the side effects of traditional cancer treatments.
Researchers are working tirelessly to add new IBT weapons to their cancer-fighting arsenal that are designed to:
- Stop, control or suppress cancer growth
- Make cancer cells recognizable and more susceptible to destruction by our body’s immune cells
- Boost the killing power of immune system cells
- Alter the growth patterns of cancer cells
- Block or reverse the process that changes a normal cell into a cancerous cell
- Enhance the body’s ability to repair or replace cells damaged by other forms of cancer treatment
- Prevent cancer cells from spreading
Developing life-saving treatments
Our partner hospital, the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota, is uniquely positioned as a leader in immune-based therapies because of the Center’s collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach to research. Programs at the Cancer Center and the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center provide the infrastructure that allows researchers to translate preclinical laboratory research to clinical research efforts, which turns paradigm-shifting concepts into real life-saving treatments.
Learn more about innovative, immune-based therapies developed by our researchers.
Back to Treatments and Therapies
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