'It's incredible, like science fiction': How a new wave of immunotherapy is eliminating cancers

After nearly 100 years of development, treatments that bolster the body's immune system to fight cancer are coming of age – and saving patients' lives. When 71-year-old Maureen Sideris was treated for colon cancer in 2008, she had to go under the knife. Her treatment was successful, but the post-operative recovery process was gruelling. Fourteen years later, Sideris, who lives in New York, was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer – and this time, her treatment, offered through a clinical trial, looked radically different. Every three weeks, she travelled to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for 45 minute-long infusions of a drug called dostarlimab. After just four months of treatment, Sideris' tumour had disappeared – without surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, and with her only major side effect being adrenal insufficiency that causes fatigue. "It's unbelievable," she says. "It's almost like science fiction." And yet, it's real. Sideris is one of a growing number of patients to benefit from immunotherapy for cancer, a treatment method hitting its stride after more than a century of development. With it comes the promise of personalised therapy, long-term cancer

Apr 13, 2026 → Apr 13, 2026