My Personal Cancer Journey — The Next Step

The decision has been made. Now that radiation treatments are completed, we are going to strike out in a new direction. Their are a number of immunotherapy drugs which are being tested for various types of lung cancer. One of these has recently been approved for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (my cancer). The drug is known as Nivolumab and is one of a class of drugs called checkpoint inhibitors. They eliminate some of the constraints of the immune system and allow the system to attack cancer cells (which it will normally not do).

In trials, Nivolumab increased the life of patients who took the drug by an additional 3.2 months compared to those on chemotherapy. In a disease where months are very important this treatment has drawn the attention of researchers and physicians.

We will begin this treatment on August 4th.

I am still suffering with side effects from the radiation, so my doctor is giving me another week off to recover.

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