Immuno-oncology (IO) therapy is a new (and old) way to treat cancer by activating your immune system in the hope that it will attack your tumour.
One of the earliest treatments for cancer was a kind of immune therapy. Over a century ago, the American physician William Coley concocted a soup of bacterial toxins that was injected directly into tumours. The so-called Coleys Toxins caused a great deal of inflammation and unfortunately sickness but did cure of a small number of people, and were used as treatment until well into the 1960s. Since then, a number of other immune therapies have been developed and trialled over the last century, but until recently side effects, cost and variable benefits have limited their usefulness.
Powered by our expanding knowledge of the cellular mechanisms of the immune system, newer types of immune therapies (also called immuno-oncology or IO therapies) have been proving successful in some types of cancer, including kidney cancer. Other types of immune therapies including vaccines are currently in trials for kidney cancer.
In this section, you will learn about which IO therapies effective for kidney cancer, how they work and what their side effects might be. To understand the new IO therapies it is important to know how our immune system works. If you want to learn more about our immune system, please read here first: How does the immune system work
