Clinical Immunotherapy to Treat Cancer

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that relies on the body's immune system.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is a leader in immunotherapy for cancer treatment, including oral immunotherapy, cancer vaccines and treatments administered intravenously.

What Is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy is the practice of using your immune system to fight cancer. This cancer treatment allows your body’s immune system to more effectively target and destroy cancerous cells in your body.

How Does Immunotherapy Work?

Cancer cells can confuse your immune system, making it hard to tell healthy cells from cancerous mutated cells. Immunotherapy helps your immune response, so your natural antibodies better detect and attack cancer cells.

Immunotherapy works by:

Stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells
Preventing cancer from spreading to other parts of the body
Boosting the immune system's ability to get rid of cancer cells

Sometimes immunotherapy cancer treatments may be used concurrently with chemotherapy, hormone therapy or surgical oncology.

How Effective Is Immunotherapy for Treating Cancer?

How effective your immunotherapy treatment is likely to be depends on many factors including the type of cancer, its stage, your genetic factors and tumor biomarkers.

Immunotherapy vs. Chemotherapy

Whether or not to use immunotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of the two is for you and your care team to determine. Immunotherapy can be helpful if your current cancer treatment stops being as effective as it once was or in instances where cancer cells return and spread.

Types of Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment

There are several types of immunotherapies for cancer.

Adoptive Cell Therapy

Adoptive cell therapy, or cellular immunotherapy, activates T cells that have already attacked cancer cells, reinfusing them to seek out and destroy tumors.

Cancer Vaccines

Cancer vaccines train the body to attack cancer cells already in the body.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

While immune checkpoint inhibitors help your body target cancerous cells, these immunotherapy drugs target different “checkpoint” proteins in cancer cells, which helps your white blood cells better identify cancer cells to attack.

Immune System Modulators

Immune system modulators are a group of immunotherapy drugs that range in form and in the way they attack different types of cancer. For example, bladder cancer is treated with a liquid immune system modulator that’s put into the bladder using a catheter to attack cancer cells.

Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies mimic actual antibodies and attack cancer cells.

Side Effects of Immunotherapy

The side effects for different types of immunotherapy for cancer differ by the type of treatment. Some side effects occur where the injection or IV enters the body, causing the area to be:

Sore or painful
Swollen
Red
Itchy

Other possible side effects include:

Flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, weakness, headache)
Nausea and vomiting
Diarrhea
Muscle or joint aches
Feeling very tired
Headache
Low or high blood pressure

These therapies can also cause a severe, sometimes fatal, allergic reaction in people sensitive to certain ingredients in the treatment. However, this is very rare.

Providers

Support Services

Cancer is a complex journey for patients and families. Before cancer, life had challenges; now they may seem insurmountable. Anxieties about health, keeping up with daily activities and maintaining important, critical relationships are common for all cancer patients and their families.

Our patient and family support services are here to help our patients so they know they have someone experienced to count on when they need it. We are here to make a difference – not just in your cancer outcome – but in the moments along the way, so you and your loved ones know there is always someone to help.

For an appointment with one of our counselors in the Cancer Patient Support Program or the Psychosocial Oncology Program, please call 336-713-6954.

For questions about the Cancer Survivorship Clinic, please call 336-713-1736.

Insurance

Insurance Accepted

This chart is a list of the most common health insurance plans we accept. This list is subject to change. Please check your individual plan to confirm their participation and the coverage allowed.

Due to the different physician groups and hospitals within the Wake Forest Baptist system, physician services and hospital services are billed separately. Please remember that health insurance coverage varies, so some services may not be covered.

If you don’t see your plan or you have questions, please call our Customer Service Center at 877-938-7497. We will do our best to work with you and your plan.

Key

WFUHS - Wake Forest University Health Sciences (professional services)
NCBH - North Carolina Baptist Hospital (Includes Davie)
LMC - Lexington Medical Center
CHC - Cornerstone Healthcare
Wilkes - Wilkes Regional Medical Center
HPR- High Point Regional
N/A - Not applicable to services provided at facility and/or CHC
NC -Not Contracted, very low to no volume for facility and/or CHC

Wake Forest Baptist Health Managed Care/MA Contracts - April 2024

AETNA CONNECTED NC ACA/Exchange: Accepted at all locations

AETNA NC PREFERRED+: Accepted at all locations

AETNA (PPO & HMO): Accepted at all locations

AETNA MEDICARE: Accepted at all locations

AETNA WHOLE HEALTH: Accepted at all locations

ALIGNMENT HEALTHCARE MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Accepted at all locations

AMBETTER OF NC: Accepted at all locations

AMERIHEALTH CARITAS NEXT ACA/Exchange: Accepted at all locations

BCBSNC (PPO & HMO): Accepted at all locations

BCBS HIGH PERFORMANCE (NATIONAL NETWORK): Accepted at all locations

BLUE LOCAL WITH ATRIUM HEALTH: Accepted at all locations

BLUE MEDICARE: Accepted at all locations

BLUE VALUE: Accepted at all locations

CAROLINA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH and CHC (not applicable to services provided at LMC, Wilkes and High Point)

CIGNA: Accepted at all locations

CIGNA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH and High Point (not applicable to services provided at LMC, CHC and Wilkes)

CIGNA HEALTHSPRING MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH, LMC, CHC and High Point (not applicable to services provided at Wilkes)

CIGNA LIFESOURCE (TRANSPLANTS): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not applicable to services provided at LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

CRESCENT PPO (ASHEVILLE): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not contracted, very low to no volume for LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

DEVOTED HEALTH (MEDICARE ADVANTAGE): Accepted at all locations

DIRECT NET: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH, LMC, Wilkes and High Point (not contracted, very low to no volume for CHC)

FIRST HEALTH NETWORK: Accepted at NCBH, LMC, Wilkes and High Point (not contracted, very low to no volume for WFUHS and CHC)

FIRSTCAROLINACARE (PINEHURST, NC): Accepted at NCBH (not contracted, very low to no volume for WFUHS, LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

GATEWAY HEALTH ALLIANCE (VIRGINIA): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not contracted, very low to no volume for LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

HEALTHGRAM (formerly PRIMARY PHYSICIAN CARE): Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH and LMC (not contracted, very low to no volume for CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

HEALTHTEAM ADVANTAGE: Accepted at all locations

HUMANA CHOICECARE: Accepted at all locations

HUMANA MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Accepted at all locations

LIBERTY ADVANTAGE (MEDICARE ADVANTAGE): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not applicable to services provided at LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

MAGELLAN (BEHAVIORAL HEALTH): Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH and CHC (not applicable to services provided at LMC, Wilkes and High Point)

MEDCOST: Accepted at all locations

MEDCOST ULTRA: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH, LMC, Wilkes and High Point (not applicable at CHC)

PHCS/MULTIPLAN: Accepted at NCBH, CHC, LMC and High Point (not contracted, very low to no volume for WFUHS and Wilkes)

OPTUMHEALTH (TRANSPLANTS - APPLICABLE TO NCBH/WFUHS ONLY): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not applicable to services provided at LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

PREFERRED CARE OF VA INC: Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not contracted, very low to no volume for LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

SOUTHERN HEALTH SVCS (COVENTRY-PPO ONLY): Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH and CHC (not contracted, very low to no volume for LMC, Wilkes and High Point)

TWIN COUNTY (VIRGINIA): Accepted at WFUHS and NCBH (not contracted, very low to no volume for LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

UNITED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: Accepted at WFUHS, NCBH, CHC and High Point (not applicable to services provided at LMC and Wilkes)

UNITED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM (WFUHS ONLY): Accepted at WFUHS (not applicable for services provided at NCBH, LMC, CHC, Wilkes and High Point)

UNITED HEALTHCARE: Accepted at all locations

UNITED HEALTHCARE ESSENTIALS ACA/EXCHANGE: Accepted at all locations

UNITED HEALTHCARE MEDICARE: Accepted at all locations

VA CCN: Accepted at all locations

WELLCARE (MEDICARE ADVANTAGE): Accepted at all locations

LMC ONLY: Contracts specific to support Lexington employer groups, low volume
NATIONAL PROVIDER NETWORK/MEDICAL RESOURCES

CHC ONLY: Contracts specific to support CHC
TRICARE

Key

WFUHS - Wake Forest University Health Sciences (professional services)
NCBH - North Carolina Baptist Hospital (Includes Davie)
LMC - Lexington Medical Center
CHC - Cornerstone Healthcare
Wilkes - Wilkes Regional Medical Center
HPR- High Point Regional
N/A - Not applicable to services provided at facility and/or CHC
NC - Not Contracted, very low to no volume for facility and/or CHC

Referring Physicians

At Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, we understand the importance of referrals. Our physician liaisons partner with referring physicians in our community and beyond to provide information on our physicians and clinical services. Full list of new physicians.

Contact the Physician Liaisons

Research and Clinical Trials

As part of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, our patients have access to clinical trials—investigational treatments that help advance our understanding of fighting and curing cancer. Many of these trials are only available right here at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, and our physicians and staff will help you decide if choosing that pathway to treatment is right for you.