Antibody therapy is one of the immunotherapies and is often used in cancer treatment. Antibody therapy uses artificially produced antibodies to treat certain diseases.
What is antibody therapy?
Currently, antibody therapy is used especially for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory bowel disease. Antibody therapy is based on the properties of antibodies that support our immune defenses. Also known as immunoglobulins, antibodies are an important component of the human immune system, helping to fight off foreign bodies that have invaded the immune system, as well as altered endogenous structures. In recent years, great progress has been made in antibody therapy. In particular, disease processes and the corresponding endogenous defense mechanisms are now better understood, and as a result, numerous new drugs for tailored antibody therapy have come onto the market. Today, antibody therapy mainly uses so-called monoclonal antibodies, which are artificially produced and target different diseases in each case.
Function, effect, and targets
Currently, antibody therapy is used especially for cancer and autoimmune diseases and inflammatory bowel disease. It contributes to an improved quality of life of patients and usually slows down the progression of a disease. Depending on the method of application, antibody therapy can be divided into different types. Unlike chemotherapy, the antibody therapies used in cancer treatment can spare healthy cells and specifically help the immune system attack tumor cells. Cancer cells are “smart”; they are often not recognized by the immune system as foreign invaders and are destroyed. Antibody therapy helps identify tumor cells. For example, some cancer antibody therapies trigger a defensive response from the immune system. In this form of therapy, antibodies bind to the surface of cancer cells and signal the immune system to destroy these tumor cells. Other antibodies succeed in blocking receptors that serve to dock cancer cells. Still others seem to trigger a kind of suicide program in the tumor cells, which die as a result of the antibody therapy. Antibody therapies can therefore be used to limit tumor growth. However, it does not yet seem possible to kill all tumor cells with antibody therapy alone. Therefore, doctors often combine chemotherapy with antibody therapy. Antibody therapies are used particularly successfully in breast cancer, some forms of lymphoma and leukemia, and colorectal cancer, usually in combination with chemotherapy. Antibody therapy clearly enhances the effect of chemotherapy. Antibody therapy is also promising in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism, ankylosing spondylitis or multiple sclerosis. In these diseases, the immune system attacks the patient’s own body. For example, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis are treated with antibody infusions. The effect of this antibody therapy lasts for about nine months, after which further treatment is given. In this type of antibody therapy, antibodies recognize the pro-inflammatory messenger substances typical of these diseases and cause the immune system to fight these substances. In this way, they reduce inflammatory activity and slow down joint-destroying processes. As with cancer therapy, antibody therapy is administered as an infusion that lasts about two hours.
Risks, side effects, and hazards
In general, antibody therapy is well tolerated and effective. Depending on the antibody used, possible side effects, but usually only during the first infusion, include allergic reactions, whether milder reactions such as rash, nausea, mild shortness of breath, or fever, or more severe ones such as flu-like symptoms, headache, chills, or allergic shock. To avoid these risks, patients are given medications before the infusion to prevent an allergic reaction. However, some antibody therapies can also cause more serious side effects, such as breast cancer therapy with the antibody trastuzumab, which can damage the heart.In general, antibody therapy increases the risk of infection in a patient or even the risk of developing cancer because of the effect of the antibodies on the immune system. So-called opportunistic infections may occur during the course of therapy, e.g. tuberculosis or a dangerous brain disease caused by a virus. In these infections, pathogens can multiply that are normally fought off by a healthy immune system. Pregnant women should not undergo antibody therapy because its effect on the unborn child has not been sufficiently studied.
