704-355-2884 or 1-800-804-9376

The Immunotherapy Program at Blumenthal Cancer Center consists of skilled healthcare professionals who are dedicated to the care of patients receiving immunotherapy for melanoma, kidney and other types of cancer. This team works with patients and their families during initial evaluation, treatments and follow-up visits, ensuring continuity of comprehensive care.

Team members include:

• General surgery research director
• Immunotherapy program director
• Immunotherapy nurse practitioner
• Immunotherapy research nurse
• Medical oncologist
• Pathologist
• Urology oncology team
• Radiologist
• Laboratory professionals
• Chaplain
• Dietician
• Support coordinator
• Registered nurses with expertise in immunotherapy

Program Description
The Immunotherapy Program began with the Melanoma Care Program in August 1994. Immunotherapy is an innovative and exciting approach for treating cancer. Also called biologic therapy, immunotherapy uses the body's own defense system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.

The Immunotherapy Program offers inpatient and outpatient evaluations, consultations and treatments. It also is working to develop treatment approaches for many types of cancer beyond advanced melanoma and kidney cancer. Extensive laboratory work at Carolinas Medical Center, in collaboration with other immunotherapy programs, ensure that state-of-the-art treatment will be available to Blumenthal Cancer Center patients.

Treatment
The Immunotherapy Program team meets once a week to formulate treatment plans, review patient data, and discuss new additions to the medical and research literature.

Interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha, naturally occuring hormones are two immunotherapy agents that can effectively treat certain cancers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved interleukin-2 for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma and kidney cancer. The FDA has also approved interferon-alpha for the treatments of individuals who have had surgery for melanoma and are at high risk for the recurrence of this cancer.