What is the Difference Between Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy?

Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are two distinct approaches to cancer treatment. They differ in their mechanisms of action and the way they interact with the body's immune system.

Immunotherapy:

• Aims to stimulate a host response that effectuates long-lived tumor destruction.
• Works by using the body's immune system to fight cancer cells.
• Main types include monoclonal antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and cancer vaccines.
• Can be used for various types of cancer, depending on the stage and the presence of specific gene changes or mutations.

Targeted Therapy:

• Aims to inhibit molecular pathways that are critical to tumor growth and maintenance.
• Works by targeting the differences in cancer cells that help them to grow.
• Can be used to arrest the development of new blood vessels that feed the cancer cell, trigger the immune system to attack the cancer cell, change proteins within the cancer cell, block or turn off signals telling the cancer cell to grow or divide, or carry toxins directly to the cancer cell.
• Is more specific and has reliable biomarkers of response, resulting in higher response rates than immunotherapy and longer median progression-free survival (PFS).

In some cases, targeted therapies may diminish tumor-mediated immunosuppression by abrogating the production of immunosuppressive factors, which could improve the effector cell function and increase immune destruction of cancer cells, suggesting possible synergies with immunotherapies. However, it is essential to optimize dose, sequence, and timing of targeted therapies to rationally design future clinical trials.

Comparative Table: Immunotherapy vs Targeted Therapy

Here is a table summarizing the differences between immunotherapy and targeted therapy:

Immunotherapy and targeted therapy are two distinct types of cancer treatments that aim to combat cancer through different mechanisms. Immunotherapy stimulates the immune system to help the body fight against cancer, while targeted therapy inhibits molecular pathways by targeting proteins involved in tumor growth and maintenance.