immunotherapy

American  

[im-yuh-noh-ther-uh-pee, ih-myoo-] / ˌɪm jə noʊˈθɛr ə pi, ɪˌmju- /

noun

• immunotherapies
  plural

1. treatment designed to produce immunity to a disease or enhance the resistance of the immune system to an active disease process, as cancer.

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immunotherapy British  

/ ˌɪmjʊnəʊˈθɛrəpɪ, ˌɪmjʊnəʊˌθɛrəˈpjuːtɪk /

noun

1. med the treatment of disease by stimulating the body's production of antibodies

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• immunotherapeutic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• immunotherapies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of immunotherapy

First recorded in 1905–10; immuno- + therapy

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

immunotherapy immunotherapies

In melanoma, the abundance of mutations gives the vaccine more targets to work with, while the tumor’s relative sensitivity to immunotherapy gives those targets a better chance of producing an immune response.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

The vaccine is being administered in combination with Merck’s blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda to people who had surgery to remove melanoma.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

The vaccine, called Intismeran, was given in combination with Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug already used in cancer treatment.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

When delivered along with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug and the current standard of care, intismeran autogene prevented melanoma recurrence and prevented the cancer from spreading to other organs, the companies said in a statement.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

Its effects became even stronger when researchers combined it with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

Much of this progress stems from improved medical treatments—e.g., statins, immunotherapies, GLP-1s—disease screenings and less tobacco use.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

About half of patients with metastatic melanoma will get worse on first-line immunotherapies within a year, at which point they have scant options.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Diagnosis can then be matched to newly available immunotherapies that dissolve amyloid plaques in the brain and slow the overall course by approximately 30%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026

This differs from many existing immunotherapies, which often require doctors to collect and customize each patient's own immune cells before treatment.

From Science Daily ● May 25, 2026

Many modern cancer immunotherapies rely on genetic engineering to permanently modify immune cells.

From Science Daily ● May 25, 2026