During Cancer Immunotherapy Month, survivors with firsthand experience can speak to what immunotherapy treatment breakthroughs have made possible
WHO: Several patient advocates affiliated with the Cancer Research Institute are available to share their immunotherapy experiences:
- Oswald Peterson, Lung Cancer Survivor: Diagnosed with advanced stage 4 lung cancer in early 2017, Oswald was treated with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and was cancer-free by July 2017. Since then, he’s been able to dance at Trinidad’s famed Carnival, a celebration he once feared he’d never see again.
- Jenney Bitner, Melanoma Survivor: At 38 years old and 22 weeks pregnant, Jenney was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma. Following two brain surgeries, she began ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) and was cancer-free after four infusions. She named her infant son after the surgeon who helped save her life.
- Gordon Levine, Colorectal Cancer Survivor: After stage 4 colorectal cancer spread to his liver, lungs, and bones, Gordon was preparing to put his affairs in order. A second opinion led to a combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo), and his tumors began “melting away.” He has since traveled on an African safari — ostomy bag and all.
- Adrienne Skinner, Ampullary Cancer Survivor: After three chemotherapy regimens failed to halt the spread of stage 4 ampullary cancer, Adrienne enrolled in a clinical trial for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) at Johns Hopkins. A biopsy three months later showed her tumor was gone, and she has been cancer-free for more than a decade.
- Dana Deighton, Esophageal Cancer Survivor: Diagnosed at 43 with stage 4 esophageal cancer, Dana went through chemotherapy, radiation, and a 15-hour surgery — but her cancer recurred. She advocated strongly for herself and finally qualified for nivolumab (Opdivo), which melted away her remaining cancer.
WHAT: June is Cancer Immunotherapy Month, a recognition of one of medicine’s most consequential advances. Since 2011, the FDA has approved 156 immunotherapy drugs that work by training the body’s own immune system to find and destroy cancer cells. Real-world use of these therapies has climbed more than 20-fold, and today immunotherapy is a treatment option for more than 20 solid tumor types and five blood cancers.
Behind those numbers are real people who have had their lives saved by immunotherapy. The Cancer Research Institute is making several of them available for interviews: patients who faced advanced or historically hard-to-treat cancers, exhausted their standard options, and are alive today because of immunotherapy. Their stories show both how far the field has come and why the U.S. must continue funding cancer immunotherapy research.
About Cancer Research Institute
Founded in 1953, the Cancer Research Institute is the world’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fueling the discovery and development of immunotherapies for all cancers. For more information, visit cancerresearch.org.
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