Thyroid cancer treatment with immunotherapy

The essence of thyroid cancer immunotherapy is to make the patient's immune system independently recognize and destroy cancer cells. The immune system stores information about all normal tissues and substances in the body, identifying new ones as potential threats and targets for attack. Fighting cancer cells is not easy. Sometimes they are not identified as foreign because they must differ sufficiently from healthy cells. Sometimes the strength of the immune response is insufficient to destroy cancer (usually, the immune system destroys several million atypical cells daily). Cancer cells "mimic" release substances that prevent the immune system from finding and attacking them. Without "supervision" by the immune system, thyroid cancer cells receive carte blanche for their division, growth, and metastasis. Specially developed drugs remove the "blockage" from the cells of the immune system. Thyroid immunotherapy enhances the therapeutic effect of other techniques – surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy, so it is often used in combination with thyroid cancer therapy. Drugs are usually administered intravenously under the supervision of an oncologist. The dosage and treatment regimen depend on the type of therapy and the reaction of the tumor. Immunotherapy often involves the injection of several doses of the drug over a certain period. The tolerability of therapy and control studies are assessed every 2-6 weeks.