Immunotherapy for mesothelioma
Immunotherapy helps to strengthen or restore the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. This works to kill cancer cells and stop cancer cells from growing and spreading.
Most people with pleural mesothelioma that can’t be removed with surgery (is unresectable) will be offered immunotherapy. If you have immunotherapy, your healthcare team will use what they know about the cancer and your health to plan the drugs, doses and schedules.
Immunotherapy may be used along with other treatments. You may have immunotherapy to:
- kill cancer cells
- stop cancer cells from growing and spreading
Immunotherapy drugs used for mesothelioma
The type of immunotherapy drugs used to treat pleural mesothelioma are called checkpoint inhibitors.
The immune system usually stops itself from attacking normal cells in the body by using specific proteins called checkpoints. Checkpoints slow down or stop an immune system response. Sometimes mesothelioma cells use these checkpoints to hide and avoid being attacked by the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors work by blocking the checkpoint proteins so immune system cells (called T-cells) attack and kill the cancer cells.
The most common checkpoint inhibitors used for mesothelioma are:
- nivolumab (Opdivo)
- ipilimumab (Yervoy)
- pembrolizumab (Keytruda)
A combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab is often used to treat unresectable pleural mesothelioma.
Sometimes checkpoint inhibitors are used with chemotherapy to treat unresectable pleural mesothelioma. Pembrolizumab may be used with cisplatin and pemetrexed.
Side effects
Side effects of immunotherapy will depend mainly on the type of drug or drug combination, the dose, how it’s given and your overall health. Tell your healthcare team if you have side effects that you think might be from immunotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.
Some common side effects of immunotherapy for unresectable pleural mesothelioma are:
- fatigue
- loss of appetite
- nausea
- diarrhea
- skin problems, including rash and itching
Find out more about immunotherapy
Find out more about immunotherapy. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about immunotherapy.
Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.
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