Local News
Clinical trials halted because cancer drug was so effective
Gundersen seeing a lot more lung cancer
patients, and this drug could help
A cancer drug was so effective in clinical trials, it’s now being offered to all patients in the study.
The drug was made somewhat famous last year for treating President Jimmy Carter’s skin cancer.
“Normal chemotherapy treatments are like a shotgun,” Gundersen Health System oncologist Kurt Oettel explained. “You just, sort of, kill everything in sight.
“Keytruda outsmarts a tumor. It basically takes down (its) shield, such that the immune system can suddenly recognize a cancer, whereas in the past, it hadn’t been able to.”
In La Crosse County, the success of Keytruda could be a huge development, Oettel said.
On a daily basis Gundersen is treating 150 lung cancer patients, which is still the deadliest of the cancers. And, since Gundersen is now screening for lung cancer, that number is rising, Oettel said.