A case for immunotherapy
Two men try out immunotherapy for their cancers, with gratifying results.
Two men try out immunotherapy for their cancers, with gratifying results.
VINCENT Chin, 67, woke up one morning and felt a lump the size of a 50sen coin on the right side of his neck.
An avid golfer, he didn’t think too much about it and went on with his daily routine.
However, the retired business administrator couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the lump, and so he decided to consult a doctor.
End result: he was diagnosed with stage 2/3 nasopharyngeal cancer in September 2015 after various consultations.
Wong Moh Tian, 63, had been experiencing problems with urination for the past year. He suffered from nocturia (frequent urination at night), dribbling and weak urine stream.
After some months, he decided to get himself checked as he was aware that the symptoms could be due to his prostate.
The diagnosis was made last February: stage 3 prostate cancer.
This is where the paths of these two men converged, albeit in different ways.
After his diagnosis, Chin was recommended chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but he was concerned about the side effects, especially of chemotherapy.
He decided to do his own research about the treatments available before his final decision.
Despite extensively researching the treatments available, he was still undecided.
Then he remembered a friend who had undergone immunotherapy for cancer, and decided to look into that as well.
After reading more into what the therapy entailed, and discovering that the treatment was available in Kuala Lumpur, he decided that he would go for this treatment.
In Wong’s case, a friend recommended the treatment to him, and after consulting with a specialist, he decided that it was the best option for him.
Hence, both Chin and Wong ended up choosing immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, is a type of treatment that utilises a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer.
This is done either by stimulating and “directing” the immune system to attack cancer cells or providing man-made immune system proteins to fight the cancer.
It has become the current buzzword in cancer therapy, and immunotherapy is fast becoming an important part of treatment for certain types of cancer.
Various types of immune treatments are being researched, and it appears that immunotherapy will play an important part in how we treat cancers in the future.
There are various types of immunotherapy. Both Chin and Wong underwent Human Initiated Therapeutic Vaccine therapy (HITV), which was first developed by Japan’s Dr Kenichiro Hasumi.
The treatment involves the use of dendritic cells to stimulate the immune system response to cancer.
First discovered by Dr Ralph Steinman in 1973, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2011, dendritic cells are part of the immune system and are basically cells that detect foreign or harmful substances.
Upon detection of such potentially harmful substances, the cells activate other components of the immune system to initiate an appropriate response.
Basically, HITV stacks the
immune system’s deck, stimulating killer T cells to attack cancer cells, as well as breaking the immune tolerance of cancer cells.
The HITV protocol involves injecting dendritic cells harvested and processed from the patient directly into the tumour, in combination with targeted radiation therapy.
There are essentially three important steps:
First, the injection of dendritic cells into the tumour, followed by infusion of killer T cells.
The direct injection of dendritic
cells into the tumour allows for adequate numbers of dendritic cells to reach the tumour site.
This is followed by radiotherapy a week later to reduce the size of the tumour.
Radiotherapy also wipes out the regulatory T cells, thereby helping to break up the cancer’s immune tolerance.
Then, a second injection directly into the tumour is carried out, followed by killer T cell infusion. The objective here is to mop up all remaining cancer cells.
The procedure is then repeated when necessary.
HITV therapy is suitable for solid tumours that are localised in treatable sites because of the need for direct injection into the tumour.
Chin was diagnosed with a primary nasopharyngeal tumour with neck node involvement.
At his last check up in November, no malignant lesion was detected. He’s back to playing golf, and appears to be enjoying life to the fullest.
Wong’s diagnosis was prostate cancer which had spread to the pelvic bones.
At his last check-up in November, it was found that the prostate lesions were less active than before, and his bone lesions had completely regressed.
While he is still undergoing treatment, he is cautiously optimistic for the future.
Ever supportive, his wife, Tan Mooi Yong, 58, was at his side during the interview, and she expressed the hope that they will beat the cancer in the near future.