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Doctors use immune therapy against cervical cancer

By Marilynn Marchione
Published June 2, 2014 6:06pm ET
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Doctors use immune therapy against cervical cancer
In this August 2011 photo provided by Arrica Wallace, Wallace poses with her husband, Matthew, and sons Marccus and Mason in Mexico during a vacation, two weeks after her first round of chemotherapy. Arrica Wallace was 35 when her cervical cancer was discovered in 2011. It spread widely, with one tumor so large that it blocked half of her windpipe. The strongest chemotherapy and radiation failed to help, and doctors gave her less than a year to live. But her doctor heard about an immune therapy trial at the Cancer Institute and got her enrolled. "It's been 22 months since treatment and 17 months of completely clean scans" that show no sign of cancer, Arrica Wallace said. (AP Photo/Courtesy Arrica Wallace) | Uncredited

CHICAGO (AP) — Two years ago, Arrica Wallace was riddled with tumors from widely spread cervical cancer that the strongest chemotherapy and radiation could not beat back. Today, the Kansas mother shows no signs of the disease, and it was her own immune system that made it go away.

The experimental approach that helped her is one of the newest frontiers in the rapidly advancing field of cancer immunotherapy, which boosts the body’s natural ways of attacking tumors.

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