Sean Parker gives $250 million to immunotherapy

http://www.imuc.com/

If someone told you there was a safe treatment for cancer, wouldn’t you be all for it? Radiation and chemotherapy attack the body and make one frail and can immobilize those patients. Scientists have found a better way to treat cancer rather than using chemotherapy and radiation. Jayne O’Donnell, a reporter from USA Today writes about how Sean Parker, co-founder of Facebook, donated $250 million to six different cancer centers around the United States so they can research and do clinical trials using immunotherapy. Immunotherapy has gained more donors for research because it has shown its effectiveness in the drugs early stages.

Immunotherapy is a technique that enhances the body’s immune system so it can kill cancer cells more easily. In O'Donnell's article she explains how it was crucial for Sean Parker to donate to this new technique because his Institute for Immunotherapy now has funding for “high risk best ideas that may not get funded by the government”. Since this is a new technique the government is skeptical to give it funding because they are unsure of the results. But facts are facts, and 30%-40% of patients respond well to the treatment. There is no harm in trying this new advanced method, and for some the outcome can be life saving. I believe that since there is a pretty good chance that this treatment will work out for some patients I think immunotherapy should be more widely accepted in the medical community.

There are a few different types of Immunotherapy, so there are multiple options for a patient—that is if the patient's immune system hasn’t already been destroyed by other forms of treatment. Sean Parker complained that “Currently, immunotherapy is only approved as a treatment of last resort,” which means that a patient will receive immunotherapy after their body has been intoxicated with poison and radiation, meaning that a patients body is broken beyond repair by the time immunotherapy is even considered as a part of treatment. It’s a miracle that Sean Parker donated so much money to this treatment because now scientists can do more research and testing to prove to people that immunotherapy is an effective way to treat cancer and can be tried more easily on a day to day basis for patients.

Future Blog Post: How can a 60-mile walk bring people closer to a cure for breast cancer?