Immunotherapy Cancer Treatments

We offer clinical trials to treat brain tumors, breast cancer, prostate cancer and bladder cancer. Ask your doctor if you’re a good candidate for an immunotherapy clinical trial. The U.S. National Institutes of Health also maintains a current list of national clinical trials online.

Precision medicine uses your genetic makeup and other unique factors to determine what chemotherapy (and/or other treatments) will be the most effective. We established the first and most comprehensive program in Michigan, creating treatment plans that cause fewer side effects, extended survival rates and more.

Learn about precision medicine at Henry Ford Health.

We created the OncoStat Clinic to provide patients with an extra level of care for urgent, non-emergency health needs related to side effects from cancer treatment, including chemotherapy.

Learn more about our OncoStat Clinic at Henry Ford Health.

Your body’s immune system — a network of cells and organs that identifies and defends against diseases — often does not recognize cancer as a foreign invader like bacteria or viruses. Even if it does, your immune system may be overpowered by the spread of the disease. We use immunotherapy to:

• Train your immune system to recognize cancer cells and destroy them like any other disease
• Strengthen your immune system and unleash its full potential in the battle against cancer

Immunotherapy can be given to you in multiple ways:

• Through an IV or injection
• By mouth

You may receive chemotherapy treatment in one of a few places:

• At home
• At your doctor’s office
• In the hospital

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors “unmask” cancer cells so the immune system can identify and attack them.

Monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are specially designed immune system proteins that are injected into the body to seek out cancer cells and help destroy them.

Adoptive cell immunotherapy

Adoptive cell immunotherapy takes a patient’s own cells and treats them to better fight cancer in a lab setting. The cells are then reinfused into the patient’s body so they can find and attack cancer cells. In addition to killing cancer cells, this treatment may help protect you and result in long-term remission.

CAR T-cell therapy

Adoptive cell immunotherapy includes chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T-cell) therapy, which genetically reprograms your T-cells (a type of immune cell) to find and attack cancer cells throughout the body.

Henry Ford Health is one of the few cancer centers in Michigan that is certified to administer this advanced treatment. It is designed to treat the following blood cancers:

• B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• Small lymphocytic lymphoma
• Mantle cell lymphoma
• Primary mediastinal lymphoma
• Follicular lymphoma
• Multiple myeloma

Vaccines

Vaccines are an injectable treatment developed using dead cancer cells. After being administered, they stimulate the immune system to target living cancer cells.

Non-specific immunotherapies

Non-specific immunotherapies do not target cancer cells directly but instead provide a boost to the immune system’s overall capabilities.