Immunotherapy, a relatively new type of cancer treatment, harnesses the power of the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. In some patients, the results can be life-changing. Unfortunately, immunotherapy doesn’t work in every lung cancer. It’s not one disease with a one-size-fits-all treatment.
For instance, if a biopsy and tumor analysis show that a cancer expresses a high level of a protein called PD-L1, there is a fairly good chance that a PD-1 inhibitor (a type of immunotherapy) will be effective. Research has found that the higher the level of PD-L1 in some lung cancer patients, the more effective the immunotherapy was, but there was even improvement with lower levels.
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