Dr. “Pam” Sharma has been working in immunotherapy for more than 20 years. As Dr. Sharma says, “We always knew that the immune system could help to get rid of bacterial and viral antigens. So the idea that we could use the same immune system to get rid of tumor cells was very appealing. It just took many years to figure out how to do that in patients. But I’ve been working in the lab for a long time to do just that.”
The benefits of immunotherapy – a unique and personalized approach to treating cancer – are certainly quite positive. In fact, immunotherapy has become an effective tool in MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program. Dr. Sharma explains, “See, the immune system is similar in all of us – it doesn’t matter so much about the tumor type, whether it’s lung cancer, kidney cancer, melanoma…If we target the immune system appropriately, we can get it to reject the tumor.”
The future? Dr. Sharma holds a very positive outlook. “I’m very excited. I think this is a time where we can give cancer patients hope, a time of hope for all our patients.”
