| Welcome to the new Cancer Currents newsletter | |  Hello! I'm Carmen Phillips, the managing editor of NCI's Cancer Currents blog. And I'd like to include you in a bit of an experiment (we are a research agency, after all). It's hard to stay on top of everything that's happening in cancer research. So our team of writers and editors thought it might be helpful to our readers to pilot a periodic email newsletter that highlights recent Cancer Currents stories. The stories in each issue may be related to an emerging research trend, a type of cancer or treatment, or a broader topic like survivorship. As I said, it's an experiment. If the response from you, our subscribers, is positive, it might become a permanent fixture. And if you ever have questions or comments about our coverage, please drop us a line at ncicancercurrents@mail.nih.gov. So, with that, welcome to our inaugural issue! | | | | In 2008, I was at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, reporting on some of the big research findings being presented. During an interview with a leading melanoma expert, she gave me a tip. "If you really want to see something amazing," she said, "go to the session this afternoon on new treatments for melanoma. There's this drug that literally melts tumors away. I've never seen anything like it!" I did go to the session. The results, in a few patients at least, were amazing. That drug was the immune checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy), which FDA approved a few years later. And the rest, well, is history. Immunotherapy—including other immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T-cell therapies, and bispecific antibodies—is now regularly used to treat an expanding array of cancers. And hundreds more immune-based treatments are being studied in the lab and in clinical trials. It's this progress that has made immunotherapy a common topic of Cancer Currents stories. So, in case you missed them the first time around, here's a selection of recent immunotherapy-related stories to catch you up on some important recent findings—just in time for the next big immunotherapy-related discovery! Carmen Phillips Managing Editor, Cancer Currents | | | People with desmoplastic melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer, are likely to benefit from treatment with a single immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), according to new results from a small clinical trial. | | | A new study has compared three formulations of an mRNA vaccine designed to treat cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. All three vaccines showed promise in mice. | | | In two clinical trials, combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with standard chemotherapy substantially increased how long people with advanced endometrial cancer lived without their cancer worsening, particularly those with dMMR or MSI-high tumors. | | | Updated results from a large clinical trial confirm that, for some people with bladder cancer, receiving immunotherapy after surgery is an effective treatment. In 2021, initial results from the same trial led to FDA approval of nivolumab (Opdivo) for this use. | | | For some people with cancer, is 6 months of immunotherapy the only treatment they might ever need? Or 4 weeks of immunotherapy followed by minor surgery? Results from several small clinical trials suggest these scenarios may be bona fide possibilities. | | Immunotherapy to Treat Cancer Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system. | | | To read more news and research updates from the National Cancer Institute, visit the Cancer Currents blog. | | | |
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