Reframing the way we think about cancer therapy

Currently, healthcare systems worldwide are pushed to capacity, staff and resources are being redirected to COVID-19 efforts, and operating theatres among other spaces are becoming makeshift intensive care units to ventilate those suffering the more severe effects of the novel coronavirus. Many people living with cancer may be facing the possibility of delayed treatment, surgery and a worsened prognosis (BBC News, 2020; Gardner, 2020). People living with cancer also have lower immunity than the general population and will need to take extra precautions during this time (Cancer Research UK, 2020).

Encouragingly, however, there have also been some relatively recent developments in cancer therapy, some of which may contribute to a larger reframing of the way we think about treating cancer. Though still less common than surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, immunotherapies are attracting increasing interest, making use of the patient's own immune system to fight the patient's cancer. Some immune therapy developments including those novel agents that are agnostic to disease type will be explored here.