“Even though checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy drugs have the medical and scientific communities hopeful about the future, lots of questions remain about this still-evolving area of cancer treatment. Why has immunotherapy helped some patients and not others, for example? Why are the drugs having better results on some cancers than on others? Do they work better when combined with other inhibitor drugs or when used in conjunction with traditional treatments such as chemotherapy? “A lot of patients also want to know if we should administer immunotherapy at the beginning or in the very early stages of cancer,” says Dr. Eugene Ahn, Hematologist/Oncologist at our hospital near Chicago.”
https://www.cancercenter.com/community/ ... notherapy/
Clinical trials: Testing new boundaries of immunotherapy
Re: Clinical trials: Testing new boundaries of immunotherapy
At the moment only medicines I can recomment with relative convidence are pan selective beta-blockers like Propranolol. It is experimental, but approximately 70 percent of melanoma patients using this type of drugs were alive after 5 years with immunotherapy. In melanoma patients without pan selective beta-blockers I think same number was 25 percent. My memory might not be completely accurate, but when numbers are this good I would try exiperimental approach. Also beta-blockers are relatively safe. Anti inflammatory analgetics might help.
Finally I would love to try oncoloytical viruses as viral infection can increase the amount of lymphocytes. This is completely experimental. Alone oncolytical viruses are not very effective, but as least to me oncolytic viruses were safe.
Should immunotherapy be used early or late in the disease course. I really dont know and this can vary between cancers. In order for immunotherapy to work immunesystem must be able to reconise cancer. This is easier, when cancer has lots of mutations and it is wide-spread. Interestingly this logic doesnt seem to work in asps.
Finally I would love to try oncoloytical viruses as viral infection can increase the amount of lymphocytes. This is completely experimental. Alone oncolytical viruses are not very effective, but as least to me oncolytic viruses were safe.
Should immunotherapy be used early or late in the disease course. I really dont know and this can vary between cancers. In order for immunotherapy to work immunesystem must be able to reconise cancer. This is easier, when cancer has lots of mutations and it is wide-spread. Interestingly this logic doesnt seem to work in asps.
Re: Clinical trials: Testing new boundaries of immunotherapy
Immunotherapy that is injected to tumor site during primary tumor surgery is still approach I am most exited about. As long as this treatment doesnt limit future check point inhibitor use I dont see downside. There are most likely still risks, that I just cant figure out now. I still believe in surgery for primary tumor, despite success with immunotherapy in asps.