While medical science is always advancing to help us fight diseases, there is also a more natural way to fight infection and disease – the body’s immune system. At Metro Dermatology, our immunotherapy services treat dermatological conditions such as alopecia, warts, and precancerous skin lesions.
Metro Dermatology has four locations to serve you in Bronx, Elmhurst, and Flushing, New York and Fort Lee, New Jersey. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
What is Immunotherapy?
Often used in the medical field on certain types of cancers, immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the natural responses of your immune system to help fight infection from the inside out.
Your immune system is a collection of organs, cells, and substances that help protect your body against germs and disease. When a foreign substance or germ enters the body and the immune system does not recognize it, it will create a response that destroys the foreign matter.
As germs come in all varieties, they are not always recognized as foreign by the immune system. Or in some cases, the immune system’s response is not strong enough to destroy the foreign substances.
Immunotherapy helps the immune system recognize abnormal germs, cells and substances in the body and strengthens its response to them.
Immunotherapy and Alopecia Areata/Totalis
Characterized by sudden hair loss and multiple circular bald patches, Alopecia Areata can occur in otherwise healthy people. Alopecia Totalis refers to losing all of the hair on the scalp. Hair may or may not grow back and may also fall out again depending on the individual condition.
Because Alopecia is considered to be an autoimmune disease, topical immunotherapy is an alternative approach to this unpredictable condition. Defined as inducing and periodically eliciting an allergic contact dermatitis rash, topical immunotherapy has shown great promise in managing the symptoms of Alopecia.
Immunotherapy and Warts
Caused by the Human Papilloma Virus, there are different varieties of warts. For more severe warts, immunotherapy can help where other treatments fall short. A chemical is applied to the wart area, causing an allergic reaction. This stimulates the immune system’s response, eliminating the reaction as well as the wart.
Immunotherapy and Precancerous Skin Lesions
When it comes to preventing skin cancer, early detection is key. When precancerous lesions develop, the virus can go undetected for long amounts of time. Immunotherapy can help remove precancerous skin lesions before cancer develops, and can also strengthen the immune system to be able to recognize this condition in the future.
During your consultation, our medical team will take several factors into consideration before determining whether immunotherapy is right for you. Individual results of immunotherapy treatments may vary, and possible risks and complications will be discussed with you prior to treatment.
Contact Metro Dermatology today to schedule a consultation and find out if immunotherapy is right for you.
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