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Article: Immunologic Therapies
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Immunologic therapies
Definition
Immunologic therapy is the treatment of disease using medicines that boost the body's natural
immune response
.
Purpose
Immunologic therapy is used to improve the immune system's natural ability to fight diseases such as cancer, hepatitis and AIDS. These drugs may also be used to help the body recover from immunosuppression resulting from treatments such as
chemotherapy
or
radiation therapy
.
Description
Most drugs in this category are synthetic versions of substances produced naturally in the body. In their natural forms, these substances help defend the body against disease. For example,
aldesleukin
(Proleukin) is an artificially-made form of ...