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The big question: Will cancer immune therapy work for me?

The big question: Will cancer immune therapy work for me? | iNFOnews.ca
In this July 7, 2017 photo provided by Diane Tippett, Diane Tippett poses with her husband Robbie after their wedding ceremony, on the lawn of the courthouse in Leonardtown, Maryland. Last October Lucey came to Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center with a salivary gland cancer that had spread to her liver and lungs. Lucey received Opdivo, one of a wave of new drugs that help the immune system see and fight cancer. "I don't feel any different than you do. I'm not tired, I've got all my hair," she said. "I want more people to know about it and to ask their doctors about it," she said of immunotherapy and the testing that led her to it. (Diane Tippett via AP) A

SAN DIEGO – Researchers are hunting for better ways to help predict which patients might benefit from treatments that enlist the immune system to fight cancer.

Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors have conquered some advanced cancers by removing a chemical cloak that hides them from the immune system. But they are expensive, have side effects, and work for only about one-quarter of patients. In rare cases, treatment can even backfire and make the cancer worse.

For patients, the question is “Will treatment work for me?”

Gene tests are starting to give some answers. For example, people whose tumors have many gene flaws, as opposed to just a few, seem to respond well. Doctors also are studying how to gauge the health and ability of the patient’s immune system to respond.

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