4 ms·
Solid tumors that can be removed in a big chunk by surgery, are in a sense curable. The problem is individual cells might fall off and those cells will grow in
by ars 3y ago
Solid tumors that can be removed in a big chunk by surgery, are in a sense curable.
The problem is individual cells might fall off and those cells will grow into new tumors in other spots.
Immunotherapy will kill those cells. But if you tried immunotherapy to kill a big chunk of tumor the side effects might kill the patient - think never-ending fever and inflammation.
See you do both, you do surgery to remove the bulk of the tumor, and immunotherapy to vacuum up any lone cells.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoThat'll still be poor outcomes for brain tumors whose position makes surgery impossible. If I'm not mistaken, also there are even a few that are just nearly impossible to cut... remember reading an account of one such that dulled a few dozen scalpels. The introduction of some new cutting tool at the time was encouraging.