Muscat – A medical team at The Royal Hospital has successfully treated a patient with cancer using immunotherapy.

The hospital claimed that this process has been used for the first time in Oman and the GCC. ‘Immunotherapy was done as the patient’s treatment with chemotherapy was difficult,’ the Royal Hospital stated. The patient has Down syndrome.

Dr Alia Mohammed al Mughiriyah, consultant paediatric haematologist and oncologist at the hospital, explained that immunotherapy is provided in other countries in case of relapse of cancer. “Giving immunotherapy at an early stage of treatment is an advanced process.”

Immunotherapy is the treatment of a disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to prompt or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.