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Immunotherapy is the use of medicines to stimulate a person’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively. Certain types of immunotherapy can be used to treat pancreatic cancer.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors

An important part of the immune system is its ability to keep itself from attacking the body’s normal cells. To do this, it uses checkpoint proteins on immune cells, which act like switches that need to be turned on (or off) to start an immune response. Cancer cells sometimes use these checkpoints to keep the immune system from attacking them.

Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors can be used for people whose pancreatic cancer cells have tested positive for specific gene changes, such as a high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H), or changes in one of the mismatch repair (MMR) genes. Changes in MSI or in MMR genes (or both) are often seen in people with Lynch syndrome. Checkpoint inhibitors may also be effective if the tumor is found to have a high tumor mutation burden (TMB-H).

These drugs are considered for people with pancreatic cancer that can’t be removed with surgery, has come back (recurred) after treatment, or has spread to other parts of the body (metastasized). They may be recommended for people who are physically frail and unable to tolerate chemotherapy or whose cancer starts growing again after chemotherapy.

PD-1 inhibitor

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and Dostarlimab-gxly (Jemperli) are drugs that targetPD-1, a checkpoint protein on immune system cells called T cells that normally helps keep these cells from attacking normal cells in the body. By blocking PD-1, this drug boosts the immune response against pancreatic cancer cells and can often shrink tumors.

This drug is given as an intravenous (IV) infusion every 2 or 3 weeks.

Common side effects can include fatigue, cough, nausea, itching, skin rash, decreased appetite, constipation, joint pain, and diarrhea.

Other, more serious side effects occur less often. This drug works by basically removing the brakes from the body’s immune system. Sometimes the immune system starts attacking other parts of the body, which can cause serious or even life-threatening problems in the lungs, intestines, liver, hormone-making glands, kidneys, or other organs.

It’s very important to report any new side effects to your cancer care team promptly. If serious side effects do occur, treatment may need to be stopped and you may get high doses of corticosteroids to suppress your immune system.