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A New Approach Runs the Table for Early Colorectal Cancer
The use of immunotherapy led to a 100% response rate in a very small study of a colon cancer subtype (MMR-deficient tumors).
This year, in the USA alone, we will see more than 100,000 new cases of colon cancer. There will be an estimated more than 44,000 new cases of rectal cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Many patients will receive chemotherapy in addition to surgery, and selected patients with rectal cancer may also have radiation therapy. Today, we turn to an interesting twist in the management story.
Beyond chemotherapy alone, and into the future
Decades of research. Scores of clinical trials. Nobel Prizes. Immunotherapy uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. This management approach involves the stimulation of the immune system to help it do its job more effectively. Recently, so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs unleash the immune response against cancer cells.
Wikipedia offers that checkpoint inhibitor therapy (including PD-1 inhibitors such as nivolumab or Opdivo) “targets immune checkpoints, key regulators of the immune system that, when stimulated, can dampen the immune response to an immunologic stimulus. Some cancers can protect themselves from…
