{"id":3171,"date":"2015-04-24T03:01:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T03:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2015-04-24T03:10:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T03:10:02","slug":"new-drug-uses-bodys-own-immune-system-to-fight-lung-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3171","title":{"rendered":"New drug uses body’s own immune system to fight lung cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lung-health\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An interesting story from NBC News. A new drug, called Keytruda, can apparently use the body’s own immune system among some patients to fight both lung cancer and melanoma.<\/p>\n

According to the NBC News article:<\/p>\n

\n

Garon’s team tested Keytruda in 495 lung cancer patients. The drug targets mutations in genes called PD-1 and PD-L1. These mutations let some tumors escape detection and destruction by immune system cells that normally prevent cancer from spreading in the body. …\u00a0It worked in about 19 percent of the patients,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Before you think 19 percent is a petty amount — keep in mind lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in the world. In the U.S., about 224,000 people a year get lung cancer. 19 percent of 224,000 is 43,000 people … a year … in the U.S. alone.<\/p>\n

\"keytrudaMedL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Currently, about 160,000 people a year die of lung cancer each year. We’re talking about potentially cutting that number by 25 percent if this drug works as well as promised.<\/p>\n

From the NBC story:<\/p>\n

\n

Most of the patients helped by Keytruda saw their cancer stop growing for about an average of a year, and some still haven’t had the cancer come back, Garon’s team said in their report, which was also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.<\/p>\n

About a quarter of the lung cancer patients in the trial had a mutation in PD-L1, and the people helped most by the drug were more likely to have the mutation, the researchers found.<\/p>\n

The drug, known generically as pembrolizumab, caused many side-effects, such as fatigue and rash. But so does chemotherapy for lung cancer.<\/p>\n

\"Hope760\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a second study,<\/a> researchers compared Keytruda to another immunotherapy drug called Yervoy<\/a> in 830 patients with melanoma.<\/p>\n

After a year, 74 percent of patients who received Keytruda every two weeks were alive. This dropped to 68 of those dosed every three weeks. To compare, 58 percent of patients who got Yervoy lived a year or longer, researchers reported.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s not a cure. Another one of many, many baby steps toward a cure to the Plague of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting story from NBC News. A new drug, called Keytruda, can apparently use the body’s own immune system among some patients to fight both lung cancer and melanoma. According to the NBC News article: Garon’s team tested Keytruda in 495 lung cancer patients. The drug targets mutations in genes called PD-1 and PD-L1. These … Continue reading New drug uses body’s own immune system to fight lung cancer<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[497,599],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lung-cancer","category-lung-disease","tag-keytruda","tag-lung-cancer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/lung-health.gif?fit=659%2C518&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-P9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3931,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3931","url_meta":{"origin":3171,"position":0},"title":"Jimmy Carter on the forefront of possible breakthrough in lung cancer drug","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Jimmy Carter was diagnosed about a year ago with advanced\u00a0liver cancer that had metastasized into his brain and other organs. Usually, for a 90-year-old man, the prognosis is not good. However, a year later, Carter is at the moment cancer-free and apparently has no plans of dying any time soon.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Keytruda"","block_context":{"text":"Keytruda","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=833"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160616-jimmy-carter-cancer-1215p_e510b4c7e214f042414c426212d131b0.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160616-jimmy-carter-cancer-1215p_e510b4c7e214f042414c426212d131b0.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160616-jimmy-carter-cancer-1215p_e510b4c7e214f042414c426212d131b0.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160616-jimmy-carter-cancer-1215p_e510b4c7e214f042414c426212d131b0.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160616-jimmy-carter-cancer-1215p_e510b4c7e214f042414c426212d131b0.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4198,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4198","url_meta":{"origin":3171,"position":1},"title":"Immune therapy breakthrough for cancer wins Nobel","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Two medical researchers, James Allison of the U.S. and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine this week for their breakthrough research in harnessing the body's own immune system to fight cancer. Allison and Honjo's breakthroughs came way back in the 1990s. 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Keytruda is an immunotherapy drug that instead of poisoning the body, uses the body's own immune system to attack cancer cells. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Keytruda"","block_context":{"text":"Keytruda","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=833"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumb_72345-644x401.jpg?fit=644%2C401&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumb_72345-644x401.jpg?fit=644%2C401&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumb_72345-644x401.jpg?fit=644%2C401&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4046,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4046","url_meta":{"origin":3171,"position":3},"title":"New drugs making progress against lung cancer","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Lung cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. 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There is a stigma surrounding lung cancer like no other cancer which is reflected in the lack of funding for lung cancer research compared to breast cancer and other kinds of cancer. The reason why is pretty obvious: \"Well, people who get lung cancer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lung cancer"","block_context":{"text":"Lung cancer","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/141106-emily-taylor-ned-1441_33bffbc79bd9945ae38b102b2427c6d1.nbcnews-ux-680-520.jpg?fit=680%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/141106-emily-taylor-ned-1441_33bffbc79bd9945ae38b102b2427c6d1.nbcnews-ux-680-520.jpg?fit=680%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/141106-emily-taylor-ned-1441_33bffbc79bd9945ae38b102b2427c6d1.nbcnews-ux-680-520.jpg?fit=680%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3200,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3200","url_meta":{"origin":3171,"position":5},"title":"Cuba, U.S. cancer centre join forces to work on a vaccine for lung cancer","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another fallout of the thawing of relations between Cuba and the U.S. -- and a pretty neat story, to boot. 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