Immunotherapy before surgery killed off liver tumors in one-third of patients, study finds

Presurgical immunotherapy may kill not only the tumor but also likely tiny cancer cells that surgery may miss, researchers said.

"While we can cure it sometimes with surgery, unfortunately it often comes back—more often than most other cancers—and so one of the main reasons we did this trial was to find a way to decrease the likelihood the cancer will come back," Marron, who is also the director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at The Tisch Cancer Institute and holds a Ph.D. in Immunology, said in a release discussing the recent report.

The researchers of the phase 2 trial found that immunotherapy given before surgery, known as neoadjuvant immunotherapy, may kill not only the tumor but also microscopic cancer cells that surgery may miss, according to the report. If missed, the cancer cells could cause cancer to metastasize or reoccur, Marron told Fox News and explained the immunotherapy treatment helped boost the immune system’s ability to fight off cancer recurrences.