IMMUNOTHERAPY
U
ntil just two years ago, the best option for beating
most types of cancer was surgery, chemotherapy or
radiation – or a combination of these. Today, due in
part to researchers at Atlantic Health System, exciting new
drugs are available nationwide.
“Instead of using chemicals or radiation, these drugs fight
cancer using the body’s own immune system while another
newer method attacks the cancer directly using a unique
approach different from chemotherapy,” says Michael Kane,
MD, medical director of Community Oncology for Atlantic
Health System and medical oncologist with the Cancer
Center at Chilton Medical Center. And they’re very effective.
“Traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and
radiation work by killing cancer cells directly,” says Eric
Whitman, MD, medical director of Atlantic Health System’s
Carol G. Simon Cancer Centers. “Immunotherapy helps the
body to use its own natural defense system to kill cancer
cells.