Immunotherapy

This article highlights the new therapies targeting a specific biomarker that have become available for patients with non–small-cell lung cancer in the past 3 years, significantly improving patient survival.

Dr. Binder, of the University of California, San Diego, describes immunotherapy as the most recent advance in the treatment of endometrial cancer.

Many side effects of immunotherapy can be effectively managed with early detection and intervention. It is important that patients with cancer and their caregivers know what symptoms to look for.

On August 17, 2021, the FDA accelerated the approval of Jemperli (dostarlimab-gxly; from GlaxoSmithKline) injection, an immunotherapy and a PD-1 inhibitor, for the treatment of all adults with recurrent (coming back) or advanced mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) solid tumors, including lung cancer, that progressed during or after systemic therapy and for whom there are no satisfactory alternative treatment options.

For the first time, the use of immunotherapy after surgical removal of the tumor and chemotherapy has shown benefits in patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and PD-L1 expression, a biomarker found in some patients with NSCLC.

In this special issue focused on immunotherapy, we take a deep dive into this exciting type of treatment, highlighting the role of genetic testing and new developments in lung, skin, and bladder cancer in improving patient outcomes.

Christie Bevington shares her story of how immunotherapy was the only treatment that helped stop her cancer progression and relieve her back pain caused by lung cancer.

Tim Dorius, MD, explains the role of molecular profiling in relation to immunotherapy, and how oncologists can now look at the genetic makeup of a tumor to identify specific mutations or other biomarkers.