"I am beyond thrilled to have my life back."
Video: Father-of-three, Graham, shares his immunotherapy story.
We've seen first hand how immunotherapy has transformed the lives of many people with cancer over the last decade. People like Graham, who had kidney cancer, but following successful immunotherapy now has no evidence of the disease.
From end of life to full of life
Graham was in his early fifties but facing end-of-life care. The kidney cancer he’d been diagnosed with in 2020 had spread and doctors told him it was no longer curable. Then he began immunotherapy.
“Immunotherapy has been remarkable for me. During the initial treatment we were taking everything one step at a time. But I don’t think we dreamt that I would be where I am now, working full-time and enjoying my life to the full.”
But immunotherapy doesn’t work for all people like Graham, or for all cancer types. There is a desperate need to better understand how it works, so we can continue to improve its effectiveness, and offer even more patients the hope of a cure.
How does immunotherapy work?
Rather than directly attacking cancer cells with treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy works by sparking the body’s own immune system into action against tumours. It keeps cancer at bay for longer, helping give people longer lives, and curing many of the disease.
Understanding much more about the complex immune biology in people who receive immunotherapy and other treatments for cancer, will help us work out why immunotherapy works really well for a few, but it doesn’t work for most patients.
And with that knowledge, we can research how to intensify the immune response against cancer to save more lives.
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