Immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer

What is the immune system?

Our bodies are protected from infection and disease by a network of cells, tissues and organs called the immune system.

Does the immune system work against cancer?

Although our immune system will often deal with the faulty cells that can cause cancer, it doesn’t always do this. This can be for a few reasons:

• the cancer cells can hide from the immune system
• proteins on the cancer cells protect them from the immune system
• the immune system isn’t strong enough to destroy the cancer cells.

How does immunotherapy work?

Immunotherapy can activate the immune system to work better or differently so that it can find and attack cancer cells. There are many types of immunotherapies and these work with the immune system in different ways. It can be used on its own or with other cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

Immunotherapy is a standard treatment for some cancers, including melanoma (a type of skin cancer).

You can find out more about the different types of immunotherapy and how these work on the Cancer Research website.

Is immunotherapy used to treat pancreatic cancer?

There have been clinical trials looking at immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. But these have not yet shown that it works well in treating pancreatic cancer. That’s why it isn’t usually available for pancreatic cancer.

Some people with pancreatic cancer may be able to have immunotherapy through clinical trials. Often these trials are only suitable for a small number of people who meet certain criteria. Ask your medical team if there are clinical trials that you could take part in. You can also look at our clinical trial finder to search for pancreatic cancer trials in the UK, which may include immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy is a developing area of cancer treatment. Researchers think that it may have potential to treat pancreatic cancer, especially if it’s used with other cancer treatments.

Published November 2024

Review date November 2026