Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer, long a medical dream, is becoming a reality. Remarkable stories of tumors melting away and terminal illnesses going into remissions…— backed by solid data — have led to an explosion of interest and billions of dollars of investments in the rapidly growing field of immunotherapy.
All this has brought new optimism to cancer doctors — a sense that they have begun tapping into a force of nature, the medical equivalent of splitting the atom.
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Hundreds of clinical trials involving immunotherapy…are underway for nearly every type of cancer. “People are asking, waiting, pleading to get into these trials,” said Dr. Arlene Siefker-Radtke[.]
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Related on the SLP
If there is a potential downside to the advances, Dr. [Matthew] Hellmann said, it is that the buzz about immunotherapy has led some patients to think chemotherapy is passé.
“Immunotherapy represents a hugely important new tool, but chemotherapy can work too and has been the backbone of the way we’ve treated patients with…cancer,” he said. “Immunotherapy is not a replacement for that. It’s a new weapon.”
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