Less than a third of Esophageal Cancer Patients Respond to Immunotherapy. Could a Medication Commonly Used to Treat Anxiety and Heart Issues Change That?
That’s what ECAN Board member Dr. Sarbajit Mukherjee, a Roswell Park oncologist, is working to discover.
In an earlier study adding beta blockers helped more melanoma patients respond to immunotherapy. So Dr. Mukherjee took a look at his Esophageal Cancer patients who were already taking these medications. He found they responded to immunotherapy more often than other patients.
His new clinical trial adds a beta blocker to the treatment plan for Esophageal Cancer patients. The study has started enrolling patients at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. They may add more sites as time goes on.
Dr. Mukherjee’s study is just one of many funded by the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP).
The work of ECAN advocates makes it possible for researchers like Dr. Mukherjee to gain access to this fund of more than $130M each year. You can join the effort to ensure more Esophageal Cancer research funding in the future by going to ecan.org/advocate.
At this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, ECAN’s President and CEO caught up with Dr. Mukherjee. Here is her interview about this potentially life-saving work.