IMMUNOLOGY AND THE SCIENCE OF SELF-HEALING
THE IMMUNE SYSTEM is one of our basic and most important systems in our body designed to protect us from potential threats from outside our body, as well as from abnormalities and abnormal cells that are generated from within. It's able to accomplish this miraculous task through a combination of cells and through communication molecules called cytokines. Together, they work together to weave an impenetrable web that, in most cases, should protect us from all sorts of severe and chronic diseases. But if we're exposed to things that can damage the immune system (such as poor nutrition, infections, toxins, traumas or severe stresses) a rip in the fabric can lead to our loss of protection that could lead to severe or chronic illness.

HOW AND WHY IMMUNOTHERAPY WORKS
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Our body's immune system recognizes cancer cells as foreign or abnormal. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells have unique proteins (antigens) on their outer surface. Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system. They latch onto the cancer cells' antigens. In this way, they label or tag the abnormal cells.

Ideally, special cells in the immune system would be recruited to destroy the tagged cancer cells. Sometimes, however, the immune system needs some help. Biological therapy helps to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer. The chemicals used in immunotherapy often are called biological response modifiers. They enhance the body's normal immune-system reaction to a cancer threat.

Some biological response modifiers are chemicals that occur naturally in the body. But they are produced in larger amounts in a laboratory to help boost a person's immune response. Biological response modifiers can play many different roles in fighting cancer. For example, they can:

Immunotherapy also can be used to suppress the immune system. This is particularly helpful in autoimmune disorders. In these disorders, the immune system "misfires." It wrongly attacks normal tissues.

Inflammation is useful for fighting infection. But in autoimmune diseases, it damages normal tissues. Biological therapies can cool off this harmful inflammation. Examples of biological therapies currently in use include:

Interferons: Boost the body's immune response. They also can act directly on cancer cells to control their rapid growth.

Interleukins: Stimulate growth of the body's immune cells, especially lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell.

Colony stimulating factors (CSFs): Encourage the growth of bone marrow stem cells. Bone-marrow stem cells, especially white blood cells, are needed to fight infections. But they often are destroyed by cancer treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation. CSFs are used after other cancer therapies. They help to grow a new population of cells in the blood.

Monoclonal antibodies: These are made in a laboratory. They recognize the antigens on the surface of cancer cells. Monoclonal antibodies can be used alone. Or they can be linked to anti-cancer drugs or to radioactive substances. They can carry these linked poisons directly to tumor cells inside the body. Some antibodies acting alone can significantly interfere with cancer cells. They can stop them from growing. Or they can cause them to be destroyed by the body's immune system. Monoclonal antibodies spare the body's normal cells. Monoclonal antibodies also may help people with autoimmune diseases. They target immune cells or chemical messengers involved in inflammation. Monoclonal antibodies may reduce pain and improve joint function in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

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