IN THE NEWS: Extending Remissions in Lung Cancer

Cancer Today

Immunotherapy treatments can provide hope and more time for patients who face cancer, like Joy Mousseau. She was receiving a colonoscopy, but the cancer screening couldn’t be completed because a large mass was found. Emergency surgery led to the removal of what turned out to be a cancerous tumor in her colon, but in a proactive move to have Mousseau do a chest X-ray to see if the cancer metastasized, cancer was found in her lung that was unrelated to the colon cancer. Mousseau sought a second opinion at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute with Hirva Mamdani, M.D., medical oncologist and leader of the Thoracic Oncology Multidisciplinary Team (MDT). To treat her non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Mousseau had a left lower lobectomy with a portion of the upper lobe and chemotherapy. Once Dr. Mamdani explained that immunotherapy is recommended for the next phase of her treatment, Mousseau told Cancer Today that she asked, “When can we start?”

In this article, Mousseau explains why she’s glad she decided to begin immunotherapy treatments, while Dr. Mamdani explains the different ways in which immunotherapy is effective in treating NSCLC and why patients should seek care from a multidisciplinary team of experts, like what Karmanos offers. Dr Mamdani and fellow members of the Thoracic Oncology MDT were able to tailor Mousseaus’ treatment to effectively target her cancer.

Read the article here.

Joy Mousseau and her medical oncologist, Hirva Mamdani, M.D.