Immunotherapy: New Challenges for Nursing

Abstract

Anticancer immunotherapy brings a radical change in oncology for two major reasons. The first one is of scientific nature because the therapeutic target is from now on the immune system, while the other anticancer treatments used to target the cancer cell. Immunotherapy makes the patient the main actor of its fight against cancer by using its own immune system as a weapon [1]. The second one is of clinical order. Indeed, antibodies of immunotherapy are given intravenously and do not require premedication. The side effects, new in oncology, are unpredictable and will require on behalf of the patient and of the nursing team real challenges for their identification and their management. Big hopes were born with immunotherapy.