Immunotherapy combinations may aid patients with advanced skin cancers following kidney transplants
People who have had a kidney transplant are at high risk for developing skin cancers. Now, Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have discovered the optimal treatment combination to address skin cancers while safeguarding transplanted organs.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, revealed a novel drug combination aimed at boosting the immune system to combat advanced, potentially life-threatening skin cancers without causing permanent harm to patients' transplanted kidneys. The regimen involved two immune-suppressing drugs to safeguard the transplanted kidney, along with either one or two checkpoint inhibitors, which activate the immune system to target cancer cells.
“Organ transplant recipients develop skin cancers at an exponentially higher rate compared with the general population because they receive long-term immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. This can stop the immune system from recognizing and attacking cancers as they form” says Evan Lipson, M.D., an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Kimmel Cancer Center.
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