Dr. Clinton willingly traveled from Ohio to Buffalo every month, and sometimes more often, because the clinical trial “was the most advanced immunological treatment for my genetic type of cancer.
Immunotherapy
“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.”
“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.
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.”
Learning the difference between chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy
Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that did not respond to treatment or that came back after two previous treatments had few remaining options — until now.
In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese stem cell researcher, made a groundbreaking discovery that would win him the Nobel Prize. Yamanaka discovered a new way to turn adult, dividing cells into pluripotent stem cells.
Dr. Lee says hopes are high for the success of immunotherapies targeting multiple myeloma: “I think we’re seeing a major change in the way we take care of the disease.”
What can be done when cancer is able to hide from your immune system or block the immune response, or if it just isn’t strong enough to kill all the cancer cells?
Dr. Odunsi and his colleagues observed that the tumors of some patients were full of T cells that had managed to work their way inside the tumor. When there were many of these T cells, the patients tended to live longer.
A combination of two immunotherapy drugs shows promise in treating patients with skin cancer that has spread to the brain, according to a study published this week the New England Journal of Medicine.