Definition Of Biological Therapy – OnCare Cancer Treatments Definition Of Biological Therapy

What is biological therapy?

Biological therapy (also called immunotherapy, biological response modifier therapy, or biotherapy) uses the body's immune system to fight cancer. The cells, antibodies, and organs of the immune system work to protect and defend the body against foreign invaders, such as bacteria or viruses.

Physicians and researchers have found that the immune system might also be able to both determine the difference between healthy cells and cancer cells in the body, and to eliminate the cancer cells.

Biological therapies are designed to boost the immune system, either directly or indirectly, by assisting in the following:

• making cancer cells more recognizable by the immune system, and therefore more susceptible to destruction by the immune system

• boosting the killing power of immune system cells

• changing the way cancer cells grow, so that they act more like healthy cells

• stopping the process that changes a normal cell into a cancerous cell

• enhancing the body's ability to repair or replace normal cells damaged or destroyed by other forms of cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation

• preventing cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body

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