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Immunotherapy mobilizes the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells. Research shows a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer patients.
Immunotherapy (therapy with new generation drugs) made the sick patients successfully cured. In one study, more than half of participants who were not given more than a few months to live had inoperable tumors shrunken, and in many cases had completely disappeared.
Immunotherapy offers hope for cancer patients
The results of several series of studies were recently presented in Chicago at the annual congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The new therapy (immunotherapy) is a hope for patients struggling with the most dangerous cancers, including lung cancer and melanoma.
According to experts, the spectacular results in patients with terminal-stage cancers – including common cancers such as lung, ovarian and intestinal cancers – mean that these types of cancer can be defeated in the future.
The evidence supporting the effectiveness of the new drugs is indisputable. Researchers predict that in a decade it will be possible to save the lives of thousands of patients.
Oncologists believe that the new method of treatment, i.e. immunotherapy, will radically change the standard of cancer therapy, saving many patients the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.
What is immunotherapy?
Peter Johnson, professor of oncology at Cancer Research UK, says that the new therapy, immunotherapy, which consists in “switching” the immune system, is one of the most important breakthroughs in oncology in 40 years. – The results of clinical trials show that we are on the threshold of a new era of anti-cancer therapy.
According to specialists, therapy that activates the activity of the immune system may soon become the main treatment method in various types of cancer.
– Cancer develops because it can effectively trick the immune system into pretending that it is not dangerous. The latest generation drugs deprive them of this ability and make the immune system recognize cancer cells and begin to fight them, explains Prof. Johnston. The researcher adds that some of the patients who participated in clinical trials were among the first 10 years ago, recovered.
Immunotherapy in the treatment of the most difficult cancers
According to Roy Herbst, director of the medical oncology department at the Yale Cancer Center, the results of the research are spectacular. This is a great discovery, he says. – It seems to me that we are going to have a paradigm shift in cancer treatment.
– These drugs seem to work against almost all types of cancer – adds Prof. Herbst, emphasizing that the results indicate that the therapy is most effective in the most difficult to cure cancers. – Therapy definitely has the potential to effectively treat and increase patient survival in the long run.
In late May, scientists looking for new treatments for melanoma reported that a genetically modified herpes virus could stimulate the immune system to function.
Immunotherapy seems to be effective in the fight against the most common types of cancer. Collectively, cancers of the lung, kidney, bladder, head and neck, and melanoma cause about 50 deaths each year and account for one-third of cancer-related deaths.
Immunotherapy – effects confirmed by research
In one British study, 58 percent In patients with advanced form of melanoma, tumors clearly decreased after the use of combination therapy with the use of new drugs increasing the activity of the immune system.
In over 10 percent tumors were completely eliminated in patients receiving nivolumab and ipilimumab.
Patients with such an advanced stage of cancer, treated with standard therapy, are given no more than nine months to live. The authors of the two-year study involving nearly 950 patients have not yet published their survival statistics. Researchers expect that half of the patients who receive immunotherapy will completely eradicate the disease.
James Larkin of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who led the study, believes that immunotherapy opens up new perspectives in cancer treatment. We’ve noticed that these drugs appear to work against different types of cancer, he said. I think we are on the threshold of a new era of cancer therapy.
Currently, in the UK, cancer patients are treated with immunotherapy using only iplimumab – one patient costs around £ 100 to treat. The second drug used in the study, nivolumab, will be approved in Europe as early as summer.
A British study shows that combination therapy with the use of these two preparations is three times more effective than treatment with iplimumab alone. Clinical trials in patients with the most common type of lung cancer have shown that for some patients, treatment doubles the chances of survival.
Equally promising results were brought by studies using the new therapy in patients with ovarian, liver, head, neck and intestinal cancers.
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