ISSUES

Although cancer immunotherapy is capable of treating cancer, it still has its negatives that ranges from a huge debt to unknown health effects.

Insurance companies can refuse to cover for the costs of a treatment. Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, prohibits any insurance companies from doing so. ACA also disallow them to cancel the coverage.
However, these laws can be changed by future U.S. presidents.
ACA does not have the ability to control the restrictions because some coverages are “grandfathered plans,” which are policies that worked before ACA. Therefore, they do not have to obey the laws of ACA.

the process of creating a treatment and

the different trials required, which can add

up to approximately billions of dollars.

responsible for the costs even if they do

not have health insurance or the insurance

does not fully cover for all the costs.

The chart provides the information of the annual costs for immunotherapy. 1

Cancer immunotherapy can affect the society.
Sometimes, immunotherapy can target the body's healthy cells, which results in side effects. This will further impact a patient's health.
The side effects can range from mild to severe.
Skin reactions can occur, such as blistering, dryness, and redness.
Some symptoms can be similar to the flu's side effects:
- Upset of stomach
- Fatigue
- Fever
- High/low blood pressures
Other symptoms could be:
- Diarrhea
- Difficulties with breathing
- Headache
It is important to understand that the side effects are not limited to the ones listed above, since there are numerous symptoms caused by immunotherapy.

The chart above lists the possible side effects of cancer immunotherapy. 2

Because immunotherapy is a new treatment, patients have to undergo a clinical trial if they desire to be treated with immunotherapy.
In clinical trials, participants are used to test the new treatment. Therefore, the patient can sometimes will not be given immunotherapy to compare the results of the participants who received immunotherapy. This may be unfair to the participants in the control group who were not given immunotherapy.
Some side effects are unknown, so the patients can have surprised side effects. In addition, the result of the treatment may be unsuccessful, so the participants who receive immunotherapy will not gain any health advantages.

CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY