Alex Green is clear - without immunotherapy, he would have died in 2019. His advanced melanoma skin cancer was only stopped by the revolutionary treatment that recruits the body's own immune system to fight the disease. But unfortunately at the moment the majority of people with cancer see no benefit from immunotherapy.
Many suffer a relapse or experience significant side effects, which can include painful inflammation in the bowel, skin or the lungs. So now a new multimillion-pound research programme aims to discover why at least half of all patients fail to respond to immunotherapy or suffer from those debilitating side effects. Now 42, Alex was initially diagnosed with melanoma in 2012.
He was treated with surgery, but three years later the disease had spread to his lymph nodes. Alex underwent several operations to remove the tumours, followed by a course of post-surgery radiotherapy, and then later, immunotherapy. "I finished radiotherapy and my scans were clear, however under two years later my cancer returned," he said.
"I was offered immunotherapy and it completely saved my life. "Without it I was expected to have died in 2019, leaving behind my wife and two children, then aged four and seven. "It was a life-changing treatment for me and I’m now in my eighth year of complete remission and able to lead a normal and active life.
" But Alex, a lawyer who lives in Surrey, warns the treatment is not straightforward. "Whilst the treatment’s results have been amazing, it d.