One of the difficulties in treating all cancers is the inability of a person’s immune system to target cancer cells because of the cancer cells ability to avoid detection. Researchers throughout the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian have been researching new ways to help the immune system find these cancer cells. This field of research is known as immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a type of biological therapy that helps the immune system fight cancer through the use of substances in the living organism. You can find more information and an explanation as to how immunotherapy fights cancer in the below video:
http://www.nyp.org/cancerunmasked/
While specific immunotherapy derived treatments are still in the clinical trial phase for lymphoma this is an area of active research. In this video Lymphoma Program Director, Dr. John P. Leonard refers to the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors as an, “…important new frontier…” in the treatment of lymphoma. Currently clinicals for lymphoma related immunotherapy are ongoing. Available trials for immunotherapy at Weill Cornell can be found on the Joint Clinical Trials website.
New Developments in Lymphoma 