Treatment of Liver Cancer and Biliary Tract Cancer with Immunotherapy

Treatment of Liver Cancer and Biliary Tract Cancer with Immunotherapy

According to the research of 2022 by American Society of Clinical Oncology, immunotherapy helps to improve the health of people who are suffering from advanced liver cancer and biliary tract cancer. This therapy improves the immune system of the patient by using their own body parts to fight diseases such as cancer. In other words, immunotherapy boosts the body parts of the patient so that they work smarter and fight cancer cells.

Biliary Tract Cancer develops in the bile duct (slender tubes) inside the liver (intrahepatic) or outside the liver (extrahepatic).The bile duct connects your liver to the small intestine and the gallbladder. Bile duct cancer mostly occurs after the age of 50 and is also known as cholangiocarcinoma. In this blog, you will read about liver cancer treatment with immunotherapy.

Symptoms of Biliary Tract Cancer:

  • Yellow Skin and Eyes
  • Itchy Skin
  • Dark urine
  • Pain in the abdomen
  • Loss of appetite
  • If you are losing weight but you are not trying,
  • Your body temperature gets high or you feel feverish.
  • Feeling of weakness or being unwell.

The Causes of Biliary Tract Cancer:

Normally, bile duct cancer occurs if the cells in the bile duct have changes in their DNA. And DNA is the chemical that is present in the cell and gives instructions to the cell on what to do. If there are changes in the cell, then it can give rise to tumors that can destroy healthy body tissues.

Dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and nitrosamines are some of the chemicals that cause bile duct cancer. People who work in rubber plants or in the automotive industry are generally exposed to these chemicals.

Factors that Increase the Risk of Biliary Tract Cancer:

  • Smoking
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • HIV
  • Excessive alcohol intake
  • If you get infected with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C,

How Does Immunotherapy Help to Prevent Liver Cancer?

People who are suffering from advanced liver cancer cannot be cured with surgery. According to recent research, to prevent liver cancer, doctor’s use a combination of immunotherapy drugs, i.e., tremelimumab targets CTLA-4 & durvalumab (Imfinzi) targets the PD-1 protein, which helps people deal with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. This immunotherapy uses the body’s parts and improves the immune system so that it fights against cancer cells.

And people who are suffering from advanced biliary duct tract cancer also get relief from immunotherapy. To prevent biliary duct cancer, the combination of immunotherapy drugs, i.e., durvalumab (Imfinzi) with chemotherapy drugs like gemcitabine (Gemstar) and cisplatin, helped the patients live longer.

Liver cancer and biliary duct cancer cannot be removed with surgery. The patients can visit the best cancer hospital in Delhi for immunotherapy treatment. So, the immunotherapy treatment improves the health of patients suffering from cancer. The overall response rate of these immunotherapy treatments is that they stop the cancer from growing or shrinking in patients. But the side effects of this treatment are anemia, neutropenia, and nausea.

 

Read More Blog : Immunotherapy For Cancer Treatment In Delhi