Immunotherapy Treatment for Advanced Lung Cancer in Louisville, Kentucky
Baptist Health Louisville: Immunotherapy Treatment for Advanced Lung Cancer
Baptist Health specialists can combine immunotherapy treatment for advanced lung cancer with other therapies. Learn about chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment for lung cancer patients in late stages.
Immunotherapy Treatment for Advanced Lung Cancer in Louisville, Kentucky HealthTalks Transcript
Andrew Hart, MD, Oncology/Hematology:
Advanced lung cancer is lung cancer that has progressed typically outside of the chest area or outside of the lung and is not curable with surgery or radiation alone, and so it requires systemic therapy. We’re finding many mutations now, and an increasing number of mutations are being discovered. We have the ability to test for all these mutations right here at Baptist Health Louisville, and when these mutations are discovered, we are able to more effectively treat these lung cancers, and we are seeing much better outcomes for people right here in Louisville.
Treatment for advanced lung cancer is changing rapidly. Immunotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors are intravenous drugs, and they work at the molecular level to allow the body’s own immune system to target the cancers and help to shrink the tumors that way. Those are providing options for therapy for people that didn’t have other options for therapy. We can even use these drugs in combination with chemotherapy. This combination of medications is providing really nice responses in people that might not have had good responses to traditional chemotherapy agents in the past.
