Dr. Bruce Roth on Curing Cancer With Immunotherapies

Bruce Roth, MD, Medical Oncologist, Professor of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, discusses the optimism for a cure with immunotherapies.

Patients and members of the media will often ask when a new treatment will translate into a cure, Roth says, though this is not a reasonable expectation for advanced solid tumors in the near future.

If these disease types could be converted to a chronic state with newer therapies without progression or symptoms, this would be a huge step forward. If these treatments were then taken to an earlier stage of the disease, one could expect to improve survival or increase cure rate.

There is always a bit too much excitement about some data reported at the ASCO Annual Meeting, Roth says, but researchers and physicians try to put things in perspective and avoid overselling. Roth asserts that the idea that a cure is the only victory is incorrect.