Not all patients respond to all types of immunotherapies. So how can doctors identify which treatments have the best chance of working in a specific patient? How can they quickly zero in on the best options on a list of immunotherapies that grows longer every day?
Immunotherapy
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have made another step toward personalizing cancer treatment while reducing the toxicity of certain cancer drugs using simple, noninvasive blood tests.
Results from the CheckMate 214 clinical trial show that combined therapy with two immunotherapy drugs, nivolumab and ipilimumab, can be very effective in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.
A new clinical trial open at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is currently investigating whether beta blockers, which calm the body’s response to stress, can boost immunotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma.
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.
Newer targeted treatments like immunotherapy have emerged in recent years and appear to be not only more effective than conventional therapy but also better tolerated, because unlike chemotherapy and radiation, these newer approaches are designed to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy ones.
Judy was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer in 2016. Almost a year after her diagnosis, with the help of Keytruda, Judy’s tumor has shrunk 95 percent.
I have been battling cancer successfully for 11 years. Looking back at my first diagnosis — stage 2 breast cancer, at age 42 — I downplay it now, because what happened next was so tragic.
OK, time to stifle the Thanksgiving jokes about turkey making you drowsy. Yes, there’s an amino acid called tryptophan in turkey, and it does help your body produce a chemical called serotonin, which promotes a good night’s sleep. But chicken, beef, nuts, and cheese also contain tryptophan, and no one’s pointing the finger at them. So if you nod off after dinner, it’s probably due to all the carbs in that pile of brown-and-serve rolls you scarfed down.