Comparing Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy, and Targeted Therapy: Approaches to Cancer Treatment

Immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and chemotherapy are the three main types of cancer treatment. Each has specific outcomes, goals, and methods. Chemotherapy is a treatment that gets rid of rapidly spreading cancer cells. The immune system uses the strength of the immune markers to combat cancer. Targeted treatment plans to target a variety of proteins in cancer cells. Patients and medical professionals must understand the differences between various therapy approaches. Let's view an overview of these treatment plans.

Chemotherapy:

• Mechanism: They use synthetic chemicals that increase and inhibit the proliferation of rapidly dividing cancer cells. This healing process is systemic, which means it goes through the entire body, no longer affecting most cancer cells but also healthy ones.

• Mode of Action: Chemotherapy medications target specific levels of the cell cycle to prevent swiftly dividing cells from proliferating.

• Applicability: Chemotherapy is a common approach for various types of malignancies that spread widely and rapidly. It may be given via intravenous injection or orally.

• Side Effects: It often causes side effects such as hair loss, rashes, fatigue and a weakened immune system as it also attacks healthy body cells

• Immunotherapy:

• Mechanism: Immunotherapy aims to improve the body’s ability to fight against the invading cancerous cells by targeting the antibodies against cancerous cells.

• Mode of Action: some of the immunotherapy treatment options include: 

1. Checkpoint inhibitors- proteins that act as break prevent it from attacking healthy cells.

2. CAR-T cell treatment- procedure involves genetically altering patient T cells to target cancer proteins.

3. Cancer vaccines- treat or prevent the growth of cancerous cells.

• Applicability: The treatment option for many types of cancer is immunotherapy but its efficacy often depends on the type of cancer and the immune response of the individual.

• Side Effects: Individuals may experience organ inflammation of the lungs, liver or intestines; however, these effects are not as prominent as those experienced in chemotherapy.

           Targeted Therapy:

• Mechanism: The goal of targeted therapy is to target a unique chemical compound or cellular pathway which are vital to the improvement and survival of most cancer cells. It isn't like chemotherapy in turn it targets cancer cells with minimum damage to healthful cells.

• Mode of Action: Drugs utilized in targeted therapy include monoclonal antibodies and tiny compounds that have an ultimate goal of selectively obstructing the signals that are responsible for the spread of cancerous cells.

• Applicability: When a patient's cancer cells have a known molecular target, targeted therapy is often employed. It may fit nicely for some cancers such as leukemia, lung cancer, and breast cancer.

• Side Effects: targeted therapy indeed has a few side effects, but it is not unto the mark of effects experienced in chemotherapy, such as skin rash, and liver disorders.

To sum up, there are numerous methods to treat most cancers, which include immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and chemotherapy. Immunotherapy boosts the immune system and prepares it to fight most cancers, targeted therapy especially focuses on precise chemical substances involved in most cancer proliferation, and chemotherapy is a systemic remedy that kills swiftly growing cells. The type of cancer, its stage, and precise patient characteristics all have an impact on the treatment alternative; occasionally, an aggregate of those treatment plans is used for a greater all-encompassing approach to cancer care.