In August 2015, former president Jimmy Carter revealed at a conference held at the Carter Center that cancer had spread to his brain. Carter, then aged 91, discussed how his initial diagnosis of melanoma had led to the disease’s spread. If he had been diagnosed with the illness just a few years prior, he would have had about six months to live. Instead, the former president celebrated his 100th birthday on Oct. 1, 2024.
While luck did play a role, experts believe Carter is alive today because of immunotherapy treatments. At the time, immunotherapy was a new treatment following the approval of ipilimumab by the FDA just four years earlier. This was the first checkpoint inhibitor ever approved.
Carter received the second drug of this kind, pembrolizumab, just a year after it was approved. Dr. David Lawson, his physician at the time, revealed that he administered this treatment to Carter for six months before stopping because he responding well.
Since then, cancer immunotherapies have become a pillar of care for this illness, alongside radiation, chemotherapy and surgery.
Dr. Stephen Hodi, director of the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center’s Melanoma Center and the Center for Immuno-Oncology, carried out the maiden clinical trials with the drugs. At the time the treatments were being administered to the former president, doctors weren’t entirely sure how effective they would be, especially for cancer that had spread to the brain. Doctors were fearful that the treatments would worsen the condition of patients and cause inflammation in the brain, while doing nothing to the cancerous growths.
Another concern had been age, given that the former president was in his 90s. Now, however, individuals in their 80s and 90s can receive the treatment.
One melanoma specialist, Dr. Antoni Ribas, reveals that he has administered checkpoint inhibitors to individuals as old as 97. He adds that while older individuals have weakened immune systems, the drugs are still effective because one’s immune system remains active throughout their life.
It is important to note that physicians still give medication holidays to older patients, especially if they suffer from side effects caused by the drugs. Overall, only 1 in 20 patients have serious side effects from immunotherapies. Most common effects include flulike fatigue and skin rashes.
Currently, scientists are working to get immunotherapies to be effective for more melanoma patients as well as patients with other cancer types. Research is already combining different therapies and improving techniques of targeting individual tumors.
The investments that numerous companies such as CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are making toward advancing cancer treatment often yield positive results in the different fields in which they focus. Patients suffering from different forms of cancer can have hope that everything is being done to find new ways to treat the ailments they face.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP
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