When David Carbone, MD, PhD, began treating lung cancer patients in the 1980s, “it wasn’t clear if anything helped survival.” However, over the past few decades the treatment options and results “have changed dramatically,” said the director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center. In this episode of the James Cancer Free World podcast, Carbone explains the advances made over the years: precision cancer medicine that targets specific mutations, and immunotherapy drugs that “turn on” the body’s own immune system to detect and attack cancer cells that had previously been hiding. “The immune system now sees something it couldn’t see before,” Carbone said. Another promising area of research is cellular therapy in which immune cells are genetically modified to be more powerful “and then infused back into the patient.” Carbone said that new targets and therapies are being discovered in labs at the OSUCCC – James on a regular basis. “It’s important to convey to patients that there is now hope,” he said.