Unveiling New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment: Exploring Immunotherapy
|

Unveiling New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment: Exploring Immunotherapy

ByHolly Zink

Doctors have found new ways to fight cancer that use our body’s natural defenses. These new treatments are exploring immunotherapy. They help our immune system, which is like our body’s defense team, to fight cancers like mesothelioma. Understanding Special Proteins In our bodies, there are proteins called checkpoints. They help our immune system know when to attack harmful cells like cancer and when to leave healthy cells alone. But sometimes, cancer tricks these checkpoints and hides from our immune system. Scientists made special medicines called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). These medicines help our immune system work better against cancers like mesothelioma. They stop the tricks that cancer uses to hide from our body’s defenses. Finding New Helpers Even though these…

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Recurrent Mesothelioma: Early Adoption Gave Them Traction
|

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Recurrent Mesothelioma: Early Adoption Gave Them Traction

ByAlex Strauss

A new report shows that doctors started using immune checkpoint inhibitors for recurrent mesothelioma at least two years before the practice was officially sanctioned. This early adoption gave ICIs traction to quickly become part of clinical practice.  Immune checkpoint inhibitors block mesothelioma’s built-in resistance to immune system attack. They are among the most promising approaches to combating this intractable cancer.  University of Pennsylvania researchers recently ran a retrospective study on immune checkpoint inhibitors for recurrent mesothelioma. The study looked at real-world mesothelioma patients at several different medical centers. The researchers found that, even though the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) did not revise it’s guidelines to include immune checkpoint inhibitors as a second-line treatment until 2017, doctors were using them…