Balance Your Immune System
The immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, organs, and the substances they make that helps the body fight infections and other diseases. The immune system includes white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system, such as the thymus, spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes, lymph vessels, and bone marrow. – National Cancer Institute
A good immune system can work for or against you!
This 2019 study by Yuexin Liu, MD Anderson Cancer Center looked at the effect pre-existing immune conditions had on cancer. A total of 10,062 PanCanAtlas tumor samples had both gene expression and survival data, covering 32 different cancer types.
The results showed that in the majority of human cancers, higher immune response was significantly associated with better Overall Survival.
The study also demonstrated that in some cancer types, higher immune response is significantly associated with worse outcomes.
In particular, higher immune responses were significantly correlated with longer Overall Survival in 7 cancer types:
- breast invasive carcinoma,
- cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma,
- head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,
- lung adenocarcinoma,
- sarcoma,
- skin cutaneous melanoma
- uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma.
In contrast, higher immune responses were significantly correlated with shorter Overall Survival in four cancer types:
- kidney renal clear cell carcinoma,
- low-grade glioma,
- thymoma,
- uveal melanoma.
Aside from the cancer types mentioned above, the rest of the cancer types did not show significant correlation between immune response and patient Overall Survival.
Ways to BOOST your Immune System Response
Get Daily Physical Exercise
This 2018 Review Article found that the immune system is very responsive to exercise.
Radically Change Your Diet
This 2019 study reports that nutrients may affect immune cells, altering their function.
Poor diet: A diet lacking essential nutrients can hinder the production and activity of immune cells and antibodies.
Get Adequate Sleep
This review and meta-analysis link sleep disturbances to poorer treatment response, shorter time to progression, and reduced survival in patients undergoing cancer treatment,
Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by your body about an hour after you fall asleep. It helps you sleep more deeply and can improve cancer survival. Available as a supplement.
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Practice Meditation
This systematic review of 20 randomised controlled trials, with over 1600 participants, revealed evidence that mindfulness meditation affects select immune system processes involved in inflammation and immunity.
Laugh more
This study says that patients with advanced cancer have lower immunity, which is lowered even further by surgery or chemotherapy. Patients undergoing chemotherapy who participated in Laughter Therapy during treatment showed significantly higher immune levels.
Have Healthy Sex
Researchers at Wilkes University surveyed 112 subjects about their sexual frequency and then analysed their saliva for infection-fighting immunoglobulin A. Compared with the other groups, those who had sex once or twice a week showed significantly higher IgA levels. Lead researcher Carl Charnetski said, “Moderately frequent sex enhances immune function”.
Consume Probiotics
Probiotics have positive effects on the immune system against various diseases, including cancer, according to this study.
If you are undergoing treatment, talk to your doctor before taking probiotics because they can be dangerous if you have a severely weakened immune system.
Natural sources of probiotics include sauerkraut, yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, tempeh, miso, natto and kombucha.
Aromatherapy (Essential Oils)
This study suggests that Essential Oil Blend possesses significant anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties.
Immune-boosting oils include: Tea tree oil, Frankincense (CO2 extract), and Eucalyptus Globulus. Oils can be applied directly to the skin, inhaled, sprayed in a room or used in a diffuser to purify the air.
Practice Qigong
This Study included forty-three healthy subjects of whom 25 were randomly allocated to the experimental group and 18 to the control group. The experimental subjects underwent daily qigong training for 1 month. The study showed that qigong can effect both the innate as well as adaptive immune response.
Immune Boosting Vitamins and Supplements
AHCC (Active hexose correlated compound)
AHCC is a natural immune-modulating compound derived from specially-cultured medicinal mushroom which has been clinically shown to strengthen the body’s immune system.
In this study of 269 patients with liver cancers, 113 received AHCC after surgery. This group had an increased overall survival rate when compared to the control group. Experiments have shown that AHCC enhances natural killer cell activity.
Beta Glucans (mushrooms etc)
Beta-glucan may stimulate the immune system and help kill cancer cells – National Cancer Institute
This study says the effects of b-glucans are beneficial in chemo and radiotherapy induced immunesuppression and inhibits metastasis.
Carica Papaya
This study says recent research on papaya leaf tea extract appears to boost the production of Th1-type cytokines, which help regulate the immune system.
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Curcumin
Curcumin can modulate the activation of T cells, B cells, macrophages, neutrophils, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells according to this study.
Echinacea
This study says many of its ingredients in Echinacea are powerful immune system boosters.
This study: Flavonoids in Echinacea boost the immune systemand reduce the harmful consequence of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It also prolongs the survival time in patients with advanced cancer.
GcMAF
This study concluded that, in addition to its ability to activate tumor killing immune cells, GcMAF has direct anti tumor-forming effects on endothelial cells independent of tissue origin
Ginseng
This study says the anti-cancer effects of ginseng are mainly through the improvements in cell-mediated immunity consisting of cytotoxic T cells and NK cells.
BIOBRAN MGN-3, a food supplement
Study: These results suggest that MGN-3 is a potent natural adjuvant that efficiently activates DCs [dendric cells] and may therefore be useful for mounting an efficient immune response against infections and cancer.
Milk Vetch (Astragalus)
This study says Milk Vetch displayed its ability to control t-helper cells 1 and 2, essentially regulating the body’s immune responses.
Modified Citrus Pectin (dietary supplement)
National Cancer Institute says acids in MCP may stimulate the immune system through the activation of natural killer cells, cytotoxic T-cells, and B-cells.
Polysaccharide-K
Polysaccharide-K (PSK) or Krestin, comes from the mushroom T. versicolor.
This study says PSK is currently used as an immunotherapeutic agent for gastric, colorectal, and lung cancers in Japan.
Vitamin D therapy
Vitamin D is crucial to the working of your immune system. If you can’t get safe exposure to sunlight for a few hours each day you’ll need to supplement. Many experts, including Professor Michael Holick of Boston Medical School and John Cannell, M.D., director of the nonprofit Vitamin D Council, recommend that adults take 5,000 IU daily.
Note: Chemo depletes Vitamin D levels, so 10,000 IUs daily is recommended for cancer patients – ask your doctor first.
Wheat Grass
The authors of this study said their results demonstrated that wheatgrass-activated immune cells played a central role in the development of immunity.
TNBC and ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.
This 2022 study found that a high immune response in triple negative breast cancer is associated with better survival.
However, survival was negatively correlated with immune activity in ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.
High Galectin 3
Galectins are a class of proteins produced by many cells in the body, predominantly by immune cells. A study found significantly higher plasma Gal-3 levels in women with TNBC than in healthy women, and faster tumour growth in the presence of Gal-3.
Modified Citrus Pectin can inhibit Galectin-3.
Reports have shown that MCP could inhibit the spread of prostate, breast, and colon cancer by inhibiting galectin-3 in tumour cells, according to this study.
Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes in TNBC
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) accumulate as part of the anti-tumor immune response and have a strong prognostic and predictive significance in TNBC says this study.
Chris Woollams at canceractive says: The problem is that all chemo drugs and antibiotics like Doxycycline lower your lymphocytes and this lowers your survival times. Radiotherapy is the worst – it lowers lymphocytes and damages the immune memory of B-lymphocytes. According to UCLA expert Professor Soon-Shiong, just a 10 per cent lowering of your lymphocytes reduces survival times by 43 per cent and Doctors have no way of restoring their levels.
Patients should ensure they always have good levels of lymphocytes (above 2.2). They can achieve this through high doses of organic Turkey Tail Powder, Echinacea, Astragalus and Cats Claw. According to Patrick Soon -Shiong, oncologists rarely even try to rebuild lymphocytes after conventional treatments and this leaves patients with TNBC with a strong risk of lowered survival times. We believe you should immediately aim to restore levels to around 2.2 – 2.6 after all treatments. Your lymphocytes are your primary attack cells.
Last updated April 2026