Immunotherapy drugs, such as Keytruda, work by helping your immune system fight diseases. This includes diseases such as cancer. Immunotherapy drugs may do this by boosting your immune system so that it recognizes and attacks cancer cells. The drugs may also work by increasing the level of immune system proteins in your body.
Immunotherapy drugs are a type of targeted treatment. They’re often designed to target (work on) certain types of cancers with very specific gene mutations (abnormal changes). This makes immunotherapy drugs tailored to each person who’s receiving them.
On the other hand, chemotherapy (traditional drugs used to treat cancer) works by stopping cells in your body from dividing. (Cells that are dividing are making more cells.)
But chemotherapy drugs aren’t made to only target cells with specific gene mutations. Instead, chemotherapy works on most of the quickly dividing cells in your body. This includes both cancer cells and some healthy cells. Chemotherapy doesn’t just work on cancer cells.
In some cases, your doctor may prescribe a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs for you. This is done in order to treat your cancer in more than one way.