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John Ryan is just one of the miracles to emerge from the Johns Hopkins Cancer Treatment Unit in Baltimore in the US state of Maryland.
His life was saved by an immunotherapy treatment – very effective in a minority of patients – after a diagnosis of lung cancer. The retired nuclear reactor specialist will celebrate his 74th birthday this month
Useless chemo in many lung and bad cancers, important studies show
his battle with cancer illustrates the promises and the failures of immunotherapy. the pharmaceutical industry invests heavily.
Ryan was able to attend the graduation of three of his children and will attend the wedding of one of his daughters this summer – even though doctors were waiting to have 18 months to live in June 2013.
"It's exciting," he says.
But he knows a lot of people who have not been so fortunate. "In five years, I have lost a lot of friends."
Immunotherapy is one of two major categories of cancer drugs. The best known is chemotherapy, which has been used for decades to kill tumors. The drug, however, is so toxic that it also attacks healthy cells, causing major side effects like weakness, pain, diarrhea, nausea, hair loss and weight loss.
Ryan went through all this in 2013 and his tumor persisted
They shot me with chemo, it almost killed me. And now, I'm sucking immunotherapy, and it's been good. My quality of life was great
John Ryan
Exhausted by chemotherapy and exhausted with pain, Ryan was accepted into a final clinical trial using nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) in late 2013.
administered by intravenous to the hospital, first every two weeks, then once a month.
His tumor disappeared quickly, and 104 injections later, the main side effect comes from itching.
Recently, a mysterious mbad appeared in his right lung. He was treated with radiation.
"They shot me with chemo, it almost killed me, and now I'm sucking immunotherapy, and it's been good."
Immunotherapy forms T lymphocytes, which are part of the body's natural defenses, to detect and kill cancer cells that might otherwise adapt and hide.
Some experts are cautious, having been disappointed many times by other innovative approaches to the fight against cancer.
But many consider immunotherapy as a turning point. According to Otis Brawley, chief physician and scientist of the ### 39; American Cancer Society, more than 30 immunotherapy drugs are under development and 800 clinical trials are underway.
Julie Brahmer, Ryan Oncologist, said she is starting to treat about one-third of his lung cancer patients by immunotherapy, and not by chemotherapy.
The current clinical trials at Baltimore Institution are far more numerous than those of the average American hospital
. Long remissions observed in a small number of patients like Ryan. These success stories make up about 10 to 15 percent of patients, said William Nelson, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Johns Hopkins oncology unit. Normal remissions typically last one and a half to two years.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still the most widely used tools in the fight against cancer. But in recent years, a series of clinical trials have shaken the world of cancer, showing that it is possible to better treat and even cure some of the most difficult forms of cancer without resorting to the most toxic techniques.
A spectacular example concerns prostate cancer. The researchers found that recommendations for regular screening had the opposite effect of what was expected, resulting in too many tumors that would never have spread during operations.
Regarding bad cancer, a major study published early June at the American Society of a clinical oncology conference has shown that for tens of thousands of women, surgery and the # Hormone therapy was sufficient to ward off cancer. They discovered that chemotherapy was uselessly used, which surprised the cancer community
Meanwhile, genetic testing is becoming more common for tumors, allowing more accurate treatments and more fast. ] Johns Hopkins has a genomics lab designed to help physicians customize patient treatments, rather than basing treatment simply on the location of the tumor.
"At this point, we have better tools to say: Yes, it must be"
Some cancers, including brain cancer, remain on the sidelines of these new treatments
but for leukemia, Breast, lung, cervical, colon and rectal cancer, as skin cancer known as melanoma, immunotherapy and other personalized treatments is progressing "slowly but surely," says Nelson .
Hong Kong Professor Leads Cancer Therapy Trial
For Julie Brahmer, Oncologist Partly, she hopes that someday, metastatic cancers – those that can spread at places far from the place of origin – will be treated as a "chronic illness" rather than a death sentence.
John Ryan has a simpler goal
"My goal is to die of something other than lung cancer," he said.
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