# Immunotherapy

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/immunotherapy-term/  
OnCo record `immunotherapy-term` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Any treatment that works by getting the patient's own immune system to attack the cancer, rather than attacking the cancer directly. It can produce responses that last for years, but only in some patients.

## Summary

The main forms are checkpoint inhibitors (antibodies that release the brakes on T cells), cell therapies (CAR-T, TCR-T and TIL, in which a patient's T cells are removed, engineered or expanded, and returned), bispecific T-cell engagers, cancer vaccines including personalised mRNA vaccines, cytokines, and oncolytic viruses. Because the immune system has memory, responses can persist long after treatment stops, which is why the survival curves for melanoma and lung cancer now show a plateau of long-term survivors; the flip side is autoimmune side effects and the fact that many tumours remain 'cold' and unresponsive. Predicting who will respond, and turning cold tumours hot, are two of the field's central problems.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: immunotherapies; immuno-oncology; immunooncology; IO; cancer immunotherapy; immune therapy; immune-based therapy; immune-based therapies; chemo-immunotherapy; chemoimmunotherapy; chemo-IO; immune therapies

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_immunotherapy
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_immunotherapy

## Connected records

- terms: [Cancer vaccines and oncolytic viruses](https://onco.cc/terms/vaccines-and-oncolytic-viruses/), [Chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/terms/chemotherapy-term/), [Duration of response](https://onco.cc/terms/duration-of-response/), [Hot vs cold tumours](https://onco.cc/terms/cold-vs-hot/), [Immune checkpoint](https://onco.cc/terms/immune-checkpoint/), [Immune system](https://onco.cc/terms/immune-system/), [Immune-related adverse events (irAEs)](https://onco.cc/terms/irae/), [Neoantigen](https://onco.cc/terms/neoantigen/), [T cell](https://onco.cc/terms/t-cell/), [Targeted therapy](https://onco.cc/terms/targeted-therapy-term/)
- fronts: [Immunotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/immunotherapy/)
- technologies: [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [Immune checkpoint inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/), [Oncolytic viruses](https://onco.cc/technologies/oncolytic-virus/), [Personalised neoantigen (mRNA) vaccines](https://onco.cc/technologies/neoantigen-mrna-vaccine/), [T-cell engagers (bispecific)](https://onco.cc/technologies/t-cell-engager/), [TIL therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/til-therapy/)
- people: [John Stagg](https://onco.cc/people/john-stagg/), [Karolina Palucka](https://onco.cc/people/karolina-palucka/), [Luis Eduardo Martín Rodríguez](https://onco.cc/people/luis-eduardo-martin-rodriguez/), [Marco Herold](https://onco.cc/people/marco-herold/), [Robert Negrin](https://onco.cc/people/robert-negrin/)
- journals: [Cancer research and treatment](https://onco.cc/journals/cancer-research-and-treatment/)

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