What Is Immunotherapy and Its Benefits in Treating Mesothelioma?
Immunotherapy is a newer method to treating cancers. Thoracic surgeon Dr. Andrea Wolf explains what it is exactly and how it can help.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Immunotherapy is a newer way of treating cancers, in which the drugs are used to target specific mechanisms in the body, to really harness the body's own immune system to focus and attack the tumor. And we have found with certain solid cancers, this has been really effective, including cancers that were historically very hard to treat if they went elsewhere. Melanoma of the skin, for example, when it went to other organs was almost impossible to treat 20 years ago, whereas immunotherapy has revolutionized survival for those patients. And we've applied that to many other cancers, including colon cancer, lung cancer. And we're starting to find some effectiveness and role for patients with mesothelioma. Many of us have noticed for years that there is some protective effect of chronic inflammation. Patients with mesothelioma who got infections with surgery sometimes would survive way longer than we would have expected otherwise. And so harnessing that in a way that can actually help all patients is where we're finding some successes. [MUSIC PLAYING]
