Immunology

If you've got a spare 34 minutes The Melanoma Research Alliance has a great video on immunotherapy here:   What is Immunotherapy?   I'll try and summarize the info for people who only have, say 3 to 5 minutes  ;-)

First, you should know that for a very long time there were only 3 avenues for cancer therapy - surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy - or a combination of them. Immunotherapy is rather new, with real progress only being made within the last 7 years or so. This is important to consider because within the next ten years, immunotherapy is expected to be used for at least 70% of all cancer patients. That's a huge shift from what most people understand about common cancer therapies. And as I write this, the drug I'm currently on (Keytruda) is moving into clinical trials for at least 3 other types of cancer.

The next thing to understand is that our immune system basically has 2 ways of working. One way is quick and fast, similar to the way white blood cells build up to fight a small cut that's gotten infected. The other way is like a memory, like when we're given childhood vaccines. Our immune system can remember certain signatures and build a defense that prevents future infections. This is critical and key to understand, because it is hoped that my immune system is building a memory from what my therapy is doing that will allow my own system to manage any future tumors, with out any new meds.

So what does all of this mean? Well, it means that cancer therapies will be much more targeted than they have been in the past, which is a really good thing. Chemotherapy and radiation are indiscriminate - they kill whatever you send them at. Immunotherapy does not kill anything, it only serves to boost or modify the way your own immune system works. In this way your immune system now attacks those previously "camouflaged" tumors that it did not detect before.

Each new immunotherapy drug, such as the one I'm on now, helps cancer researchers target their next drugs in hopes of unlocking people's immune systems to better fight off cancer. It's an amazing new group of therapies that I hope will help others in the way its helped me. Those still in the "70%" need all the help and attention they can get. Truly.