Overview

Biological therapy for cancer is a treatment that helps the body's immune system kill cancer cells.

The body's immune system fights invaders, such as germs, throughout the body. Cancer cells are invaders, but the immune system doesn't always see them that way. Cancer cells can hide from immune system cells. Or cancer cells can keep immune system cells from acting.

Biological therapy for cancer can treat many types of cancer. There are many kinds of biological therapy treatments. Exactly what you can expect during treatment depends on the kind of treatment you receive.

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Why it's done

Biological therapy for cancer is a treatment that helps the body's immune system kill cancer cells. The goal of biological therapy for cancer is to get the immune system to find and kill cancer cells. Biological therapy can help treat many kinds of cancers.

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Risks

Risks of biological therapy for cancer may depend on the type of treatment you receive. There are many kinds of biological therapy treatments for cancer. The goal of all of these treatments is to help the body's immune system kill the cancer.

Flu-like symptoms are a common side effect of biological therapy for cancer. These symptoms might include:

Chills.
Feeling very tired.
Fever.
Headache.
Joint and muscle pain.
Nausea and vomiting.

Rarely, biological therapy for cancer can cause the immune system to attack healthy tissue. This can lead to swelling and irritation of the affected organs.

What you can expect

What you can expect during biological therapy for cancer depends on the type of treatment you receive. Biological therapy for cancer helps the body's immune system kill cancer cells.

In general, biological therapies work by:

Getting the immune system to attack cancer cells. There are several ways biological therapy treatments can do this. One way is putting chemicals that get the immune system working into the body. Another is training a sample of immune system cells from a person in a lab to attack cancer cells, then putting them back into that person's body.
Making cancer cells easier for the immune system to find. Biological therapy also can target the cancer cells, turning on or off cell signals that help cancer cells hide from the immune system. For example, medicines called immune checkpoint inhibitors can target certain receptors on the surface of the cancer cells. The inhibitors block the signals the cancer cells send to keep the immune system from finding them.

Many different biological therapy treatments exist, including:

Adoptive T-cell therapy.
Bacillus Calmette-Guerin therapy, also called BCG therapy.
Cancer vaccines.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy.
Cytokine therapy.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors and modulators.
Immunoconjugates.
Immunotherapy.
Monoclonal antibodies.
Targeted therapy.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy.

Some types of biological therapy are used only in clinical trials. That means they still are being studied. Biological therapy for cancer is an active area of cancer research.

Results

The results of biological therapy for cancer may take time. Ask your healthcare team when you can expect to know the results. You might have imaging tests or other tests to see if the cancer is shrinking.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Biological therapy for cancer care at Mayo Clinic

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Doctors & Departments

April 12, 2025

Immunotherapy to treat cancer. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Biological therapy. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/biological-therapy. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Niederhuber JE, et al., eds. Therapeutic antibodies and immunologic conjugates. In: Abeloff's Clinical Oncology. 6th ed. Elsevier; 2020. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Immunotherapy side effects. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy/side-effects. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Organ-related inflammation and immunotherapy. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/side-effects/organ-inflammation. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Harrington LA, et al., eds. The immune system and immunotherapy. In: The Basic Science of Oncology. 6th ed. McGraw Hill; 2021. https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.
Search results for cancer and immunotherapy. ClinicalTrials.gov. https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/search?cond=Cancer&intr=immunotherapy. Accessed Feb. 10, 2025.

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