Immune system therapies for several types of cancer are raising hopes of success in treating the disease. The findings, which are still preliminary, were presented on June 2nd at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The therapies were tested in cases of advanced melanoma, kidney or lung tumors. According to HealthDay, the researchers reported that about one-quarter of patients experienced tumor shrinkage when taking one of the two experimental drugs. None of the participants had benefited from previous therapies. In 20 of the 31 people who responded to the drug, those responses lasted one year or more, the researchers said. HealthDay quotes lead author lead author Dr. Suzanne Topalian, professor of surgery and oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, as saying, "These are notable results. These patients had an average life expectancy of less than a year coming into the trial."
