Our immune system and cancer are correlated and interdependent in times of need. Just like the immune system, other organs work together in our body to maintain its proper functioning and health. The immune system, out of all, is vital for the protection of our body against numerous diseases and foreign bodies like pathogens.
For fighting cancer, our immune system plays a critical role. It is designed in a way to identify native and non-native cells in our body that can cause harm. The system is efficient in protecting from millions of germs and fights viruses and infection. However, the immune system is more than about fighting diseases. Here’s what you need to know about cancer and the immune system.
What is the work of the immune system?
The immune system works as a “defense” to our body, protecting it against illness and infection caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. When a foreign particle comes in contact with our body, our immune system responds and reacts to it. By restricting it from entering the human body and protecting it from further damage, the immune system is the body’s first line of defense. It is also known as immune response.
The immune system is highly essential to people with cancer. Here are the reasons why:
- Cancer makes the immune system extremely weak
- Cancer treatment may weaken the immune system
- Cancer can be fought with the help of the immune system
How can the immune system help to fight cancer?
Certain cells present in the immune system are likely to identify cancerous cells and kill them immediately before their growth. It’s very rare and still not enough to fight cancer altogether. Some treatments use the immune system to fight cancer. Using the two different parts of the immune system, the fight against cancer can be successful. They are:
- Inbuilt Immune protection (protection acquired from infancy)
- Acquired Immunity (Protection acquired after a disease)
Inbuilt Immune Protection
Also known as innate immunity, this mechanism always comes into play to defunct the body from harmful damage. Innate immunity reacts immediately to a foreign body and remains always prepared for instant action. Their response involves physical, chemicals, and cellular attack against the pathogens, using natural killer cells, dendritic cells, basophils, mast cells, eosinophils, and neutrophils,
Ways of Inbuilt immune protection
- Forming a barrier by the skin around the body
- Cause stomach acids to kill bacteria
- Inner linings of the guts & lungs produce mucus and trap attacking bacteria
- Hair that moves the mucus and trap bacteria out of the lungs
- Neutrophils, also known as white blood cells to find and kill bacteria
- Urine flow used to flush bacteria out of the urethra and bladder
- Produce useful bacteria in the bowel to prevent other damaging bacteria from taking over.
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Complications of Inbuilt Immune protection
Innate protection can be changed with various defects in our body disturbing the shield. Here’s how complications can occur to damage these natural protection mechanisms.
- The wound from surgery or incident or drip in the arms can break the skin barrier
- The use of a catheter into the bladder can create a path for bacteria to reach the bladder and cause infection.
- The use of antacid medicines for heartburn can neutralize the stomach acids that kill good bacteria.
Certain cancer treatments can also cause such complications and disrupt these protection mechanisms. You can temporarily experience a decrease in the number of neutrophils in the body due to chemotherapy. While radiotherapy to the lungs can damage the mucus and hair-producing cells responsible for destroying bacteria.
Neutrophils
It is a type of white blood cell vital for eradicating infection. Neutrophils move to the areas of infection and attach themselves to the attacking bacteria, viruses, or fungi and swallow them up and kill them with chemicals present in their body. Lack of neutrophils in your blood makes you neutropenic.
Cancer treatment like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted cancer drugs can reduce the number of neutrophils in our blood. Shortage of neutropenic makes you prone to bacterial and fungal infections after cancer treatments.
After cancer treatment, it’s very important to keep these useful points in mind:
- Low neutrophil count causes an infection that can turn severe very quickly
- Experiencing fever or illness could be effective by using antibiotics
- Antibiotic fights severe infection in the body when your blood counts are extremely low.
Bacterial infections after cancer treatment are quite prevalent and spread from one another. So you must avoid interaction with your family, children, and friends after treatment and take precautions to fight them easily.
Acquired Immunity
This type of immune protection is acquired when the body has already fought its battle with other diseases. Our body becomes prepared and can easily recognize each kind of bacteria, fungus, or virus that steps into the body for the very first time. When a certain type of infection harms your body for the first time, the body finds it easy to fight it when it occurs again. Infectious diseases like measles and chickenpox are the perfect example of diseases that occur to us only once as our body fights it effectively the second time.
Vaccinations are used in this type of immunity. The vaccine is composed of a small amount of protein from a disease, not a harmful one. Using it in the body allows the immune system to identify the disease when it enters again and the immune response acts to immediately stop from getting an infection with any disease or viral infection.
Few vaccines include small amounts of live bacteria or viruses in them. These are live attenuated vaccines. Scientists use advanced viruses and bacteria that stimulate the immune system in making antibodies. Infections don’t occur with a live vaccine.
B Cells and T Cells
There are two main types of lymphocytes in the body called B cells and T cells. They are a type of white blood cells involved in the acquired immune response. B and T lymphocytes cells are made from the bone marrow. Similar to other blood cells, these blood cells become completely mature to help the immune system to fight infection and diseases. B cells age in the bone marrow while the T cells mature in the thymus gland. Once they are completely grown, the B and T cells reach the spleen and the mumps nodes to fight infection.
What’s the work of B cells?
B cells produce proteins called antibodies to fight the invading bacteria and viruses in the body. There’s a different antibody produced to fight different types of germs invading the body. The antibodies attach themselves to the harmful bacteria and viruses which marks it as an invader to the body. Marking it helps the body to identify the danger and plans it for killing it. Antibodies are also equipped in finding and killing damaged cells. B cells are a significant part of the immune system. B cells are fast and react quickly by making antibodies against the invading virus or bacteria when it enters the body again.
Antibodies contain two ends. One end attaches the protein to the outside of the white blood cells. While on the other end attaches itself to the germ or damaged cells to catch and destroy it. The ends of the antibody that sticks to the white blood cells always remain the same, known as the constant end. But the other end of the antibody that sticks to the germs differs, depending on the cell type it needs to identify. Also known as the variable end. Each of the B cells creates antibodies with a different end from other B cells. The cancerous cells are complex and differ from normal cells. Hence some antibodies use variable ends to identify cancer cells and attach to them.
What’s the work of T cells?
There are different kinds of T cells, known as helper T cells and killer T cells. The helper T cell is responsible to stimulate the B cells to produce antibodies and help the development of the killer cells. The killer T cells destroy the body’s cells that have been damaged by invading viruses and bacteria, preventing them from further growth and reproducing dangerous cells, and infecting others in the body.
Immunotherapy – How to use the immune system for cancer treatments
Immunotherapy is responsible for treating certain types of cancer. It utilized the immune system to search and kill cancerous cells. Immunotherapy is highly useful in treating cancer as cancer cells as it’s easy to identify cancer cells from normal cells. The immune system is effective in catching and destroying abnormal cells in the body.
Types of Immunotherapy used to treat cancer are the following:
- Monoclonal Antibodies (MABs): Identify and kill certain proteins on the surface of cancer cells
- Cytokines: helps to boost the immune system
- Adoptive Cell Transfer: Change the genes in people’s white blood cells
- Vaccines: Help the immune system to identify and kill cancer
The immune system is potent in keeping our body safe and protected from detrimental viruses, bacteria, and fungi. With changing times and advancements in ongoing technology and research, immune stem can efficiently help in fighting cancer.
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