Treatment that harnesses the body's own immune system to fight cancer

Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that works by helping the body's own immune system recognise and attack cancer cells. It represents one of the most significant advances in cancer medicine in recent decades, and for some patients — including some with advanced disease that would once have had very limited options — it has produced durable, long-lasting responses that were previously unimaginable.

The immune system is the body's natural defence, constantly identifying and destroying abnormal cells. Cancer cells, however, develop ways to hide from the immune system or to switch off the immune response directed against them. Immunotherapy works by removing these disguises or releasing these brakes, so that the immune system can once again recognise the cancer as a threat and mount an attack against it. In effect, it treats the immune system rather than attacking the tumour directly.

This mechanism is fundamentally different from chemotherapy. Chemotherapy attacks rapidly dividing cells directly; immunotherapy instead empowers the patient's own immune cells to do the work. This difference explains both its distinctive strengths — the potential for long-lasting responses that continue even after treatment ends — and its distinctive side effects, which arise from an activated immune system and require their own specific management.

At AIROC Hospitals, Kondapur, immunotherapy is used across a growing range of cancers, including lung cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma and other skin cancers, head and neck cancers, certain gastrointestinal and gynaecological cancers, and some lymphomas. It may be given alone, alongside chemotherapy, or in combination with targeted therapy, depending on the cancer type and stage.

Immunotherapy is not suitable or effective for every cancer or every patient, and honest assessment matters. Its likelihood of working often depends on specific biomarkers — such as PD-L1 levels or particular molecular features of the tumour — which are tested before treatment. A patient whose tumour shows these markers is more likely to benefit, and treatment is recommended where the evidence genuinely supports it, not indiscriminately.

Because immunotherapy activates the immune system, it can occasionally cause it to attack healthy organs, producing side effects that are different from those of chemotherapy and that require prompt recognition and management. At AIROC Hospitals, patients are monitored carefully, educated about what to watch for, and supported by a team experienced in managing these immune-related effects.

Patients whose cancer may be suitable for immunotherapy in Hyderabad can consult AIROC Hospitals, Kondapur, for biomarker testing, an honest assessment of whether immunotherapy is appropriate, and safe, closely monitored treatment delivered as part of coordinated cancer care.