July 18, 2019
By uclahealth 
In 2015, ESPN reporter Holly Row was diagnosed with desmoplastic melanoma, a rare, fast-spreading form of skin cancer. After a first surgery, she enrolled in a UCLA clinical trial led by Dr. Antoni Ribas testing a new approach for advanced melanoma in which participants took the drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with another immunotherapy drug […]
Tags: Antoni Ribas MD, cancer, clinical trials, featured, immunotherapy, keytruda, melanoma, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
February 11, 2019
By uclahealth
Medical researchers have had breakthroughs in treating certain types of cancer by bolstering a patient’s immune system. Known as immunotherapy, or biologic therapy, it treats cancer differently than established treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplant and surgery. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved immunotherapy treatments for 17 cancer […]
Tags: blood cancer, bone marrow transplant, CAR T cell therapy, chimeric antigen receptor, engineered T cells, immune system, immunotherapy, T cell, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
September 25, 2017
New clinical trial could boost immunotherapy’s power against cancer
By Tiare Dunlap 
Good news: Cancer survival rates are improving. The five-year cancer survival rate has risen from 49 percent in the mid-1970s to 69 percent in 2013, even as the U.S. cancer death rate has decreased by 25 percent through 2014. But these rates could be even better. A new clinical trial led by Dr. Antoni Ribas […]
Tags: aggressive cancer, Antoni Ribas, cancer treatment, clinical trial, immunotherapy, immunotherapy clinical trial, late stage cancer, melanoma, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
November 30, 2016
By jwals 
Jeannine Walston shares her story, with detailed information about her experience at UCLA, Dr. Liau, brain surgery, immunotherapy vaccine, and how to support research.
Tags: awake brain surgery, blood biomarkers, brain cancer vaccines, brain tumor, brain tumors, cancer, chemotherapy, clinical trials, DCVax-L vaccine, Dr. Linda Liau MD PhD, functional brain mapping, functional MRI
June 7, 2016
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) Offers New Hope for Patients with Metastatic Melanoma
By uclahealth
In the summer of 2015, a brand-new cancer therapy known as “Jimmy Carter’s cancer drug” shot to fame. Called pembrolizumab, it was instrumental in former President Jimmy Carter’s successful treatment for metastatic melanoma. Previously, patients with metastatic melanoma (skin cancer that has spread to other areas of the body) could undergo a combination of treatment […]
Tags: cancer drug, chemotherapy, immune system, immunotherapy, keytruda, melanoma, metastatic melanoma, pembrolizumab, radiation therapy, skin cancer, skin diseases, surgery
April 26, 2016
Multipronged approach takes aim at malignant brain tumors
By uclahealth
Researchers and clinicians at UCLA are making progress in their efforts to find effective treatments for malignant brain tumors — in part through a strategy that recognizes multiple options are needed coupled with the ability to predict which therapies will most benefit each specific patient. “Thanks to our work in molecularly and genetically classifying these […]
Tags: biomarkers, brain tumors, cancer, clinical trial, DCVax, dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccine, Dr. Linda Liau, Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, genetic profiling, geneticsc, glioblastoma, gliomas
