What Is Immunotherapy?

A managing partner at Hudson Valley Cancer Center, Dr. Ram Kancherla provides advanced and compassionate care for oncology patients. Ram Kancherla, MD has performed hundreds of stem cell transplants. He is also well-versed in immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy used as a treatment for cancer. It helps the patient’s immune system fight cancer cells in their body. The immune system comprises organs and tissues of the lymph system and white blood cells.

Additionally, the immune system is responsible for detecting and destroying abnormal cells, and it is part of its function to prevent and diminish the development of several cancers. With immunotherapy, immune cells can act better against tumors, especially because cancers have mechanisms to avoid destruction by the immune system.

Immunotherapy drugs used to treat cancer include immune checkpoint inhibitors, which block checkpoints of the immune system. These checkpoints keep immune responses from being too intense. By stopping them, inhibiting drugs allow the body to react more strongly to cancer. Patients can also receive lab-made immune system proteins, which bind to specific targets on cancer cells and help the body identify them.

What is an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant?

Managing partner at Hudson Valley Cancer Center Ram Kancherla MD runs the private oncology practice in an administrative and financial capacity. Having completed both his residency and fellowship in institutions within New York, Dr. Ram Kancherla served as the director at the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant.

Autologous stem cell transplant or autologous bone marrow transplant is a procedure in which healthy stem cells are used to replace the stem cells that have been damaged or destroyed by excess radiation and exposure to chemotherapy. Often used in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma, an autologous stem cell transplant is preferred because it eliminates the need to worry about a patient's incompatibility with a donor's stem cells.

To perform an autologous stem cell transplant, healthcare providers will extract blood from a vein in the patient's arm. This blood sample then passes through an apheresis machine to remove the stem cells from the blood sample. After a patient's chemotherapy and radiation sessions, the stem cells are returned to replace the healthy stem cells destroyed during the cancer treatments.

Autologous Stem Cell Transplant

Board-certified in medical oncology and hematology, Ram Kancherla, MD, is a respected presence in the Poughkeepsie, New York medical sphere who guides the Hudson Valley Cancer Center as managing partner. A former director of the autologous stem cell transplant program of the New York Medical College Department of Medicine, Dr. Ram Kancherla, has also authored many medical articles, including one on multiple myeloma autologous stem cell transplants.

Also known as autologous bone marrow transplant, autologous stem cell transplant is a procedure involving harvesting healthy stem cells from a patient's blood and returning the harvested stem cells into the bone marrow of the patient in the future when their bone marrow becomes compromised from an injury or the side effect of a treatment. The advantage of an autologous bone stem cell transplant is the certainty of tissue compatibility. Since the stem cells are harvested from the patient, they will be compatible with their bone marrow tissue compared to when the stem cells come from a donor whose cells may be incompatible.

In particular, autologous stem cell transplants are crucial to aggressive cancer treatments. Cancers of the immune system (lymphoma), plasma cell cancer (myeloma), and blood platelet disorders, among others, are generally treated with high doses of radiation and chemotherapy, which can damage the bone marrow. All types of blood cells (red blood cells and white blood cells) and wound-healing blood platelets are formed in the bone marrow. Defective bone marrow can result in symptoms and complications of low healthy blood cell count leading to anemia (which results in fatigue), nonstop bleeding (due to low blood platelets), infections (due to a shortage of white blood cells), bone pain, and kidney damage.

With autologous stem cell transplant following aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the chances of developing these complications may be mitigated. This is because the damaged bone marrow stem cells will be replaced by healthy stem cells, thereby fostering healing of the injury.

Camping at Grand Canyon National Park

Ram Kancherla, MD, is the managing partner at the Hudson Valley Cancer Center, located in Poughkeepsie, New York. An oncologist by training, he has rbeen ecognized as a top doctor in his community, Ram Kancherla, MD, is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Founded in 1964, ASCO is the leading professional oncology association in the world. The organization’s mission is to conquer cancer through education, research, and promoting equitable, quality patient care. A great part of ASCO’s services is dependent on volunteers who are committed experts in their various professions.

Volunteers at ASCO get an opportunity to embark on a new challenge and be involved in framing ASCO’s work. They network with experts from other fields, building new relationships and strengthening their people skills. In addition to the above benefits, ASCO volunteers earn points toward designation as a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO).