Posted on 12/09/2015 12:24:37 PM PST by dennisw
Researched and tested at Tel Hashomer Sheba Medical Center, Keytruda fights tumors using the body’s natural immune system
An Israeli-tested drug that tackles cancer through sophisticated manipulations of the body’s natural immune system was key in helping rid former US president Jimmy Carter of life-threatening tumors that developed after he was diagnosed with melanoma earlier this year.
Researched in Israel by Professor Jacob Schachter of the Ella Institute for melanoma treatment and research at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Keytruda is part of a promising new class of drugs called immunotherapies, which harness the body’s immune system to help fight cancer.
The US-based Merck pharmaceutical company’s injectable biotech drug works by blocking a protein found in certain tumors called PD-1, which inhibits the body’s natural response to cancer cells.
Carter, 91, announced Sunday that doctors found no evidence of the four lesions discovered on his brain this summer and no signs of new cancer growth. He revealed in August that he had been diagnosed with melanoma and had begun treatment, including surgery to remove part of his liver, targeted radiation therapy and doses of a recently approved drug to help his immune system seek out any new cancer cells.
“I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab,†he said. That drug goes by the name Keytruda commercially. This product image provided by Merck shows packaging for its Keytruda cancer drug. (AP Photo/Merck & Co., Inc.)
This product image provided by Merck shows packaging for its Keytruda cancer drug. (AP Photo/Merck & Co., Inc.)
“For today, the news cannot be better,†said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. “Circumstances may change over time or he may be in a situation where it does not recur for many years or at all.â€
Carter said he will continue to receive Keytruda every three weeks in order to prevent the growth of further tumors.
Melanoma specialists credit the drug for improving treatment of the disease without the side effects of traditional chemotherapy drugs that can cause hair loss and other symptoms, said Dr. Douglas Johnson, a melanoma specialist at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center who is not involved with Carter’s treatment.
How ironic Jimmy the Jew hater. I tend to believe he never had cancer.
That must have been bitter bile for Jimmuh.
How ironic, Carter hates Jews yet he was saved because of Jews
Ironic. An Israeli drug curing an anti-Semitic.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one that suspected Jimmuh of claiming cancer just to get attention.
The drug will not be available to the citizenry under wun-care, just elite liberals no matter their age.
And Middle East Muslims create nothing and never did!
Man, now that’s what I call “turning the other cheek.”
Do people in Synagogues get down on their knees and pray like most Christians do? If so, Jimmy should be in that position right now, while wearing a yarmulke, and begging forgiveness for all the anti-jew bias he has promoted over the last century.
The other takeaway here is that a brain scan of Jimmy Carter discovered anything except dust.
I love it. That anti-Semitic ol’ asshat is saved by the Jews he hates.
Oh, the irony!!! When I read the headline I laughed out LOUD. In Amtrak’s “quiet car.” Oops.
Irony: The Mark of Quality Literature.
Hey, Jimmah, if you had gotten your way and that land was handed back to the Palestinians you’d be dead by now.
Have a nice day.
BTW - Who footed the bill for Jimmuh’s treatment? NOT 0bamacare, but the “special” medical coverage set up by congress and reserved only for politicians?
I thought the brain had a membrane that protected it to some degree from drug infiltration.. But what do I know? I grew up on DR. Kildare and Welby.
Musical interlude
Sung to tiny bubbles
..
Tiny lesions
on muh brain
Make me wanna
go insane
Carter asked the Muslims first if they had any innovative cancer drugs. They didn't so he had to ask The Jews.
We treat all our enemies with compassion.
Even Jimmy Carter.
How about that. .
If we had socialized medicine, like many DemocRats want, he would have been considered too old to to treat.
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