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Understanding Immunotherapy's Side Effects
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Key Takeaways
- Immunotherapy's expanding use across cancer types requires patient and caregiver awareness of potential side effects.
- PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors are generally better tolerated than traditional chemotherapy, despite some side effect concerns.
Immunotherapy use continues to expand in the cancer treatment space. So, it is important that patients and caregivers understand its potential side effects.
As the use of immunotherapy continues to grow, not only in the lung cancer space, but across numerous cancer types, it is crucial that patients and caregivers understand the potential side effects that these agents might cause, said Jarushka Naidoo, MBBCh, assistant professor of oncology and attending physician at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University.
While there are some concerns about the potential side effects that a patient can experience on immunotherapy agents such as PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors, Naidoo also emphasized that these therapies are typically much better tolerated compared to other traditional cancer treatment modalities like chemotherapy. However, it is important for patients and caregivers to understand that these side effects may generally occur or are a direct result of immunotherapy treatment.
