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My new Oncologist’s office came through for me, and I have an appointment to assess if this treatment is for me on 1 December 2025 at 0900. I have filled out the patient data online, which was monumental – it took over an hour, so check-in should be short. I have browsed their website and conducted further Perplexity research on the subject. Below is the most concise information I have found to date and is included herein for your information:

The following is quoted from https://jsstd.org/immunotherapy-in-skin-cancers-a-narrative-review/#S2_2

“The immune system has inbuilt checkpoints to prevent destruction of ‘self’ antigens. Cancer cells sometimes make use of these checkpoints to protect themselves from the immune response. Checkpoint inhibitors, as the name suggests, target the checkpoint proteins and enable the immune system to more effectively recognize and act on the cancer cells.

CART: T cells are taken from the patient, and genes for receptors related to the cancer (chimeric antigen receptor) are added to these cells. When reinfused into the patient’s blood, these modified T cells bind to the cancer cells and kill them.

Immunotherapy has been used in virtually all types of skin cancers, both melanoma, and non-melanoma.[1–12]

Usually, immunotherapy starts showing response within a few weeks. Candidate selection for immunotherapy depends on various factors like type of cancer, stage of cancer, biomarkers expressed by cancer cells, and evolving treatment guidelines. Programmed cell death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, high microsatellite instability or high tumor mutational burden and advanced cancers unfit for other treatment options are all regarded as candidates for immunotherapy. Though immunotherapy is mainly indicated for the treatment of advanced cancers, many trials have been conducted in the treatment of non-metastatic, early-stage cancers for the achievement of prolonged outcome without the long-term side effects associated with chemotherapy. There is no exact cut-off point for stoppage of these drugs. Duration depends on the response to each drug and the development of side effects that require temporary cessation. Besides this, the high cost (running into lakhs) is a major limiting factor for continuing treatment.[13]+”