Dr. Hudis on the Optimism Surrounding Immunotherapy

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, ASCO president, chief, Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses his optimism surrounding immunotherapy for cancer care.

Hudis says following the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting, this is the second year of active manipulation of the immune system as a way of treating refractory diseases like melanoma. Now, there is substantial evidence that combinations of drugs can activate the immune system and be effective.

Hudis is optimistic about the narrow application of immunotherapy in metastatic melanoma, a difficult-to-treat disease, because data now indicates the ability to treat a variety of metastatic solid tumors.