Who is not a good candidate for immunotherapy?
Those with pre-existing conditions might not be able to pursue immunotherapy as a cancer treatment avenue. Specifically, patients with an autoimmune disease or an otherwise suppressed immune system are not always viable candidates for immunotherapy or clinical trials. The fact that some patients treated with immunotherapy have a durable response to cancer shows this treatment’s potential. But despite response rates between 20 and 50 percent in certain groups, scientists still don’t know why the majority of people with cancer do not respond to immunotherapy drugs.But a lingering problem with immunotherapy, as with many other cancer treatments, is relapse. In many cases the tumor comes back, and doctors don’t know why.