[ronzensci]

Articles related to immunotherapy and TILs/CAR-T cell have been appearing in the mainstream media for the past five years. And each one of them has hailed one or two miracle cures.

For patients (as well as their immediate caregivers) who are dealing with advanced/metastatic breast cancer, these articles tend to do more harm than good. The reason is because for an informed patient who is vulnerable, such pieces tend to strongly start influencing treatment decisions.

My sister completed her journey with advanced breast cancer in April. And she was on immunotherapy for 8 months. She was also evaluated for TIL based treatment at MSKCC.

An earlier extremely similar article had strongly influenced our decision making. Now we realise that information such as this influences families a lot. I really feel the tone and underlying theme of the article should not be to convey it as a revolution. There is a reason why certain thresholds of success are built into clinical trials. Articles such as these should be written by guest oncologist and not journalist, as they tend to overemphasize the optimism and underplay the risks.