The latest cancer research: Immunotherapy, personalizing treatment

Pink shawls
At the American Indian Cancer Foundation's Powwow for Hope, survivors were honored during a procession in which many of them wore pink shawls Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis.
Jennifer Simonson/MPR News

Cancer has become a reality many of us will face at some point in our lives. But the science on cancer treatment is constantly evolving, with new methods and treatments that work with the latest understandings of the disease.

One of the major fields within cancer research showing progress is immunotherapy. In a Scientific American piece earlier this year, Jedd Wolchok of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City talked about it as cancer's off switch.

"I believe it is finally time to start thinking realistically about long-term remissions, even cures, because we can now combine standard therapies that target the tumor with immunotherapies that boost a patient's own defenses," he said.

On The Daily Circuit, we talk about immunotherapy and other new developments in cancer research.

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