Biological Therapy for Cancer: A Complete Overview
Biological therapy has the potential to fight cancer cells effectively besides traditional treatment approaches. Learn about its types, procedures, side effects, benefits, challenges, and more.
Written by Dr Sonia Bhatt
Last updated on 3rd Jul, 2025
Biological therapy or immunotherapy is a procedure in which one's immune system fights cancer cells. It is more effective than traditional therapies as it only targets cancer cells. However, radiation, chemotherapy, or any other traditional therapy targets all rapidly divided cells, even if they are not cancerous.
Here’s more on biological therapy, its types, advantages, limitations, and side effects.
Types of Biological Therapies for Cancer
Here are some of the common types of biological therapies for cancer:
1. Monoclonal Antibodies
These antibodies are agents that target specific proteins or antigens on cancer cells, selecting them for destruction by the immune system. Some monoclonal antibodies are trastuzumab (used to treat breast cancer), rituximab (used to treat lymphoma), etc.
2. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
These immunotherapy drugs block the bond between checkpoint proteins and their partner proteins, helping T cells (T lymphocytes) destroy cancer cells.
3. Cytokines
In this therapy, cytokines or proteins help an individual’s immune system to recognise and destroy the cancer cells. This therapy kills the cancer cells of all parts of an individual’s body and prevents the growth of the tumour. Cytokine therapy is used with other therapies like adjuvant (an additional therapy to the primary treatment for cancer) and melanoma.
Biological Therapies: Mechanism of Action
These therapies work on cancer cells in the following ways to prevent and destroy their growth:
Biological therapies make an individual’s immune system attack the cancer-causing cells. This can be done by collecting samples of an individual’s immune system cells, treating them in the lab to destroy the cancerous cells, and placing them in their immune system.
Another way to target the cancer cells is to make them identifiable to the immune system. Cancer cells send signals to prevent the immune system from detecting them. Biological therapies like immune checkpoint inhibitors interrupt these signals, helping the immune system to identify the cancer cells.
How Does the Immune System Interact with Cancer Cells?
There are different types of white blood cells in one's immune system, and each of them fights with the cancer cells or other diseased cells differently. They are as follows:
1. Lymphocytes
It includes B cells, T cells, and natural killer cells. B cells produce cancer-attacking antibodies, and T cells attack the cancer cells directly and send signals to the other cells in the immune system to defend one’s body. However, natural killers or NK cells produce specific chemicals that kill foreign particles in the body.
2. Monocytes
These white blood cells destroy foreign particles by swallowing and digesting them upon detection. All these blood cells circulate to the entire body and protect it from cancer by producing antibodies and cytokines.
Consult Top Oncologist
Benefits of Biological Therapies Over Traditional Therapies
The pros of biological therapies for fighting cancer are discussed below:
Traditional therapies like radiation or chemotherapy can have severe side effects on an individual. However, biological therapies have low side effects as they are mostly less toxic.
It can be used with traditional therapies or surgery to enhance the chances of recovery.
Biological therapy can detect and target cancer cells without destroying the healthy ones.
Common Limitations and Challenges of Biological Therapy
Despite its multiple advantages, biological therapies have some drawbacks. This includes some disparity in the clinical response of specific conditions like the following:
CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy
Targeted spot inhibition
Oncolytic functions
Emergence of recombinant cytokines as sickness cells using a variety of structures to avoid immunosurveillance
Some other challenges also include:
Inability to predict the patient’s response and efficacy of the given therapy
Expensive therapy costs
The need for extra biomarkers
Lack of medical assessment plans to decide the sufficiency of treatment
Biological Therapy for Specific Cancers
Specific cancers are treated with specific biological therapy drugs. These include:
1. Breast Cancer
Biological therapy for breast cancer is also known as targeted therapy, as it targets the cancer cells and interrupts their growth processes. Drugs like trastuzumab, pertuzumab, neratinib, tucatinib, etc., are used depending on the type of breast cancer.
2. Lung Cancer
In lung cancer, biological therapy blocks cancer cell receptors, identifies cancer cell proteins, and binds them with anticancer drugs, etc. This therapy uses drugs like afatinib, gefitinib, erlotinib, etc., to fight cancer cells affecting the lungs.
3. Melanoma
Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy is used to treat melanoma. Pembrolizumab, nivolumab, etc., are some of the drugs used in this therapy.
Side Effects of Biological Therapies and their Management
Though biological therapies do not have any major side effects, some mild ones may include:
Fever
Rash
Fatigue
Chills
Muscle Pains
Headache
Flu-like signs
Diarrhoea
Nausea
Breathing Issues, etc.
Some rare symptoms of biological therapy may also include the following:
Diabetes due to pancreas inflammation
Hepatitis due to liver inflammation
Myocarditis due to heart muscle inflammation
Nephritis due to kidney inflammation
Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism
Cancer patients should discuss the risks of potential side effects with their doctors to manage them effectively. Though most symptoms disappear once the therapy is stopped, patients should improve their lifestyle with healthy eating and proper rest to minimise the side effects.
Advances in Biological Therapy Research
Here are some of the approaches to improve biological therapy’s effectiveness in the treatment of cancer:
1. Biomarker Identification
Everybody does not respond to the immunotherapy treatment. Identifying the biomarkers that can predict one's response to biological therapy can improve the treatment procedure. Thus, scientists are researching biomarkers that can predict response.
2. Neoantigen Identification
Novel cancer-associated antigens, also known as neoantigens, can stimulate immune system responses more effectively than the known antigens. Thus, identifying them can help improve the therapy.
3. Overcome Cancer Immunotherapy Resistance
Cancerous cells are often resistant to immunotherapy. Researchers are experimenting by combining various immune checkpoint inhibitors to overcome this therapeutic resistance. They also combine immune checkpoint inhibitors with radiation therapy, molecularly targeted cancer therapies, other immunotherapies, etc.
4. Blocking Evasion of Anticancer Immune Response
Cancer cells can mislead one’s immune system to detect them. A proper understanding of this process will help researchers develop drugs that can block this process by which cancer cells stop the anticancer immune response.
5. Near-infrared Photoimmunotherapy
In this approach, infrared light is used to activate the destruction of targeted cancer cells in one’s body.
Conclusion
Biological therapy is reshaping the approach to cancer treatment, effectively utilising one's immune system and reducing the damage to healthy cells. As research continues to evolve, biological therapies are expected to become increasingly personalised through genomic profiling and novel therapeutic combinations that enhance efficacy against various cancers.
Consult Top Oncologist
Consult Top Oncologist
Dr. Tarun Jindal
Uro Oncologist
14 Years • MS (AIIMS, New Delhi), MCh (Gold Medalist), Fellow, VUI, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA; Robotic and Laparoscopic surgeon
Kolkata
Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals , Kolkata, Kolkata
(100+ Patients)
Dr. Sandeep Muzumder
Radiation Specialist Oncologist
21 Years • MBBS (JIPMER, Pondicherry), MD (AIIMS, New Delhi)
Bhubaneswar
Apollo Hospitals Old Sainik School Road, Bhubaneswar
Dr Nikhil Suresh Ghadyalpatil
Oncologist
18 Years • MBBS, MD (G. Med), DNB (G.Med), MNAMS DM (Medical Oncology - Tata Memorial Hospital) European Certification In Medical Oncology (ECMO) MRCP (Med Onco SCE), PDCR
Hyderabad
Apollo Hospitals Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad
Dr. Raja T
Oncologist
20 Years • MBBS; MD; DM
Chennai
Apollo Hospitals Greams Road, Chennai
(150+ Patients)
Dr. Ruquaya Ahmad Mir
Surgical Oncologist
20 Years • MBBS, DNB
Delhi
Apollo Hospitals Indraprastha, Delhi
(25+ Patients)
Consult Top Oncologist
Dr. Tarun Jindal
Uro Oncologist
14 Years • MS (AIIMS, New Delhi), MCh (Gold Medalist), Fellow, VUI, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA; Robotic and Laparoscopic surgeon
Kolkata
Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals , Kolkata, Kolkata
(100+ Patients)
Dr. Sandeep Muzumder
Radiation Specialist Oncologist
21 Years • MBBS (JIPMER, Pondicherry), MD (AIIMS, New Delhi)
Bhubaneswar
Apollo Hospitals Old Sainik School Road, Bhubaneswar
Dr Nikhil Suresh Ghadyalpatil
Oncologist
18 Years • MBBS, MD (G. Med), DNB (G.Med), MNAMS DM (Medical Oncology - Tata Memorial Hospital) European Certification In Medical Oncology (ECMO) MRCP (Med Onco SCE), PDCR
Hyderabad
Apollo Hospitals Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad
Dr. Raja T
Oncologist
20 Years • MBBS; MD; DM
Chennai
Apollo Hospitals Greams Road, Chennai
(150+ Patients)
Dr. Ruquaya Ahmad Mir
Surgical Oncologist
20 Years • MBBS, DNB
Delhi
Apollo Hospitals Indraprastha, Delhi
(25+ Patients)
