New cancer treatment helps person’s immune system better attack tumor
regulators of cell-based immunity). Thymus cancer is rare and aggressive. People who present in stage 4 are not amenable to surgical therapy, and only about half of this group survived for 10 years in a trial a few years ago. However, your husband has had newer therapies (Stivarga and Opdivo, which are used in other cancers, such as melanoma, and colon and lung cancers) that weren’t available then.
CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells are an example of adoptive cell transfer, an exciting new type of cancer treatment with the potential to dramatically change the way we treat cancer. They enable the person’ s own immune system to better attack the tumor. As of this writ ing,theyhave been approved only for a few cancers: a type of childhood leukemia a ndat ype of lymphoma, but studies are ongoing on other cancers. I did not find any trials available for CAR T cell treatment for thymus cancer. I did find some trials recruiting patients with thymusc ancer at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
Breakthroughs in cancer research can come at any time. I hope your husband has success with one of the existing treatments, or that a new treatment comes in time to be helpful for him.
Q: A reader recently asked about chronic bad breath.IhopeIcan help. I had very bad breath for years, as verified by my wife. Brushing my tongue didn’t help. Two years ago, my dental hygienist gave me a tongue scraper, which has completely eliminated the problem.
The scraper is white, 7.5 inches long, and is serrated on both sides. The label says “BreathRx.” I use it every morning, and my wife says she never detects bad breath.
The scraper has holes at each end. Merely bend the scraper so the ends meet, then hold the ends between two fingers and scrape the tongue from back to front a couple of times. It is amazing the amount of mucous that comes off the tongue onto the scraper. — J.S.
A: I thank you, J.S., for writing.Thisi s a question I am commonly asked about, so I am pleased to pass on any potential solution.