How does the timing of cancer immunotherapy affect patient survival?

Administering immunotherapy treatments earlier in the day, before 3 p.m., has been linked to significantly longer survival rates and increased progression-free survival in lung cancer patients.

What is the average difference in survival time for early versus late cancer treatment?

Patients receiving immunotherapy earlier in the day lived almost a year longer on average compared to those treated later.

Why might morning cancer treatments be more effective?

The effectiveness might be due to the body's circadian rhythms, where immune cells like T cells are more active in the morning, potentially leading to a stronger response to immunotherapy drugs.

Home / Health / Cancer Treatment Timing Boosts Survival

Cancer Treatment Timing Boosts Survival

7 Feb

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Summary

Morning immunotherapy treatments nearly doubled cancer progression-free survival.
Patients receiving early treatment lived almost a year longer on average.
Blood tests showed more cancer-fighting immune cells in early treatment groups.

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Medicine has revealed a significant link between the timing of cancer immunotherapy and patient survival rates. Researchers found that administering treatments earlier in the day, specifically before 3 p.m., led to substantially better outcomes for non-small-cell lung cancer patients.

The study, which enrolled 210 patients, demonstrated that those receiving their first immunotherapy rounds in the morning had, on average, 11.3 months without cancer progression, nearly double that of patients treated after 3 p.m. (5.7 months).

Furthermore, the early treatment group lived almost a year longer on average. At the study's conclusion after more than 28 months, approximately 45% of patients treated in the morning were still alive, compared to about 15% in the later treatment group.