“Other than a shot once a month, I’m in no pain,“ Judi says. “Instead, I’ve already lived three years longer than I thought I would at the beginning of this diagnosis. I’m happy to be alive and feeling well, and one day, I hope to ring that Victory Bell at Roswell Park.”
Center for Immunotherapy
“It’s so easy, I feel like I’m getting away with something.” That’s how Nella Smolinksi describes the last three years of treatment with an immunotherapy drug to control her rare form of Hodgkin lymphoma.
2020 was shaping up to be a busy and exciting year for Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, Vice Chair for Translational Research at Roswell Park, and his team at the Center of Immunology.
Learn how the side effects of immunotherapy may differ from those of chemotherapy.
"It’s the potential to provide simple and effective methods to protect against disease and cancer. That’s what has always been very important to me.”
“For me, it’s kind of a miracle. I have the second chance in life that I never thought I’d have.”
Although most patients on immunotherapies experience few — if any — side effects related to treatment, serious side effects can occur. Find out which symptoms to watch for.
Roswell Park is one of very few institutions in the United States equipped to offer clinical trials of a full range of immunotherapies. How do these treatments work, and what new immunotherapy clinical trials are underway or close to being launched?
Clinical trials are a key reason why childhood cancer treatments and survival rates have improved significantly in recent years.
“Initially, ovarian cancer, melanoma, and some sarcomas are the three main targets,” says Dr. Koya, “but the clinical trial is open for patients with other cancers who meet the eligibility requirements."
Collected last week from a patient with late-stage ovarian cancer, these are not ordinary T cells; they have been altered and multiplied in the hope that when they are given back to her, they will launch a devastating attack on her cancer cells.
We’re very excited about bringing this new series of clinical trials to our patients. The promise of outsmarting cancer and disarming its defenses by ramping up our own innate immune systems has never been more real.