Immunotherapy

Pembrolizumab will be made available for some adults in Scotland with bowel cancer that’s spread to other parts of the body.  

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo) for some patients with advanced oesophageal cancer.

Cancer Research UK’s spin-out, GammaDelta Therapeutics, has been given approval to trial its unique T-cell therapy in the US.  

People who have previously been treated for a type of bowel cancer that has spread to other parts of their body will now have another treatment option in England.

One of the biggest meetings of the world’s cancer specialists took place this weekend. Here’s a flavour of the some of the top research presented.

Widely-used anti-inflammatory drugs make tumours in mice more responsive to treatments that harness the power of the body’s own immune system to tackle cancer, according to research funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal Cancer Discovery.

A potentially life-extending treatment for some people with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will now be available on the NHS in England.

People with an aggressive form of lung cancer that’s come back after treatment could live longer when treated with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab.

We spoke to Dr Kate Cwynarski, who led the Stand Up To Cancer-funded MARIETTA trial, a clinical trial which details a “potentially transforming” treatment for some patients with secondary CNS lymphoma.

Genetic changes in tumours could be used to predict who will benefit from immunotherapy, and who should receive other treatments.