Cancer Immunotherapy
Our natural defense against infectious disease and cancer is called the “immune system”. The immune system recognizes germs and abnormal cells, such as cancer cells, because they do not come from the normal body - they are labeled “foreign”. It then kills them and stops the disease.
Cancer immunotherapy is a potential novel form of treatment that improves the way our immune system fights cancer. ASCI (or Antigen Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutics) is a new immunotherapeutic approach that aims to teach our natural defense to identify the cancer cells correctly – and then kill them.
Cancer immunotherapy requires the administration of a cancer antigen that is specific to cancer cells.
To make it strong enough to detect and destroy cancer cells effectively, our immune system has to be boosted. With ASCI, this is achieved by adding substances to the cancer antigen that are able to increase the immune system reaction. They are called “Adjuvant Systems”.
