Immunotherapy

cards7up
Posts:636

Have they come up with a time frame of how long someone should be on immunotherapy? I've read in posts not medical articles that some are doing two years and stopping.  Do you think that's going to be the time frame? And if they do go off after two years and the cancer recurs, does that mean immunotherapy did not work? Thanks, great to be back.

Take care, Judy

Forums
General NSCLC

Reply # - March 5, 2019, 09:17 AM

Jim C GRACE Co…
Posts: 147

GRACE Community Outreach Team

Hi Judy,

 

Welcome back!

 

There doesn't seem to be a finite length of time that is known to be optimal for immunotherapy treatment. In a recent text, co-authored by Dr. West, it was said "In general, we continue treatment with a programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) axis inhibitor until progression or unacceptable toxicity occurs, although discontinuation after two years of treatment may be a reasonable alternative." For the full discussion of the trial evidence, scroll about 60 percent down the page to the heading "Duration of Therapy". The full article is a terrific summary of the most recent treatment options for cancers lacking a driver mutation.

 

Jim C Forum Moderator

 

Reply # - March 5, 2019, 02:31 PM

JanineT GRACE …
Posts: 665
GRACE Community Outreach Team

Hi Judy, good to hear your voice. 

 

There are still more questions than answers in the area of duration of checkpoint inhibitor treatment but the data so far point to efficacy in rechallenging at progression.  Maybe even as effective as continuing.  So restarting treatment after a break is well worth a try.  

 

All best,

Janine

I joined GRACE as a caregiver for my husband who had a Pancoast tumor, NSCLC stage III in 2009. He had curative chemo/rads then it was believed he had a recurrence in the spine/oligometastasis that was radiated. He's 10 years out from treatment.

Reply # - March 10, 2019, 08:20 AM

cards7up
Posts: 636

Thanks Jim & Janine! Wish there was a way for the articles to advance to a new tab rather than take you away from GRACE. Can that be checked out?

Thanks, Judy

Reply # - March 10, 2019, 08:34 AM

Jim C GRACE Co…
Posts: 147

GRACE Community Outreach Team

Hi Judy,

 

I don't know if that feature can be built in to the site (although I'll ask), but on my laptop I right-click on the link and choose "open in new tab" from the pop-up list. On my phone, I press the link and hold until a similar menu pops up. I use Chrome on both laptop and phone; not sure if other browsers work the same way.

 

Jim C Forum Moderator

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