Hello there and thanks for posting

I am sorry to hear about your dad's situation and this must be a worrying time for you with lots of questions running through your mind.

It sounds like your dad's specialist team are exploring all the treatment options. Sometimes if surgery isn't an option the team will consider a drug called pembrolizumab for this type of cancer. However the patient's cancer must express high levels of a protein called PDL 1 in order to work, so I am guessing this is probably what they are checking for.

You can read about pembrolizumab here.

I hope this helps and that your dad is able to have the treatment he needs.

Do get back with more questions or if you prefer give us a call on 0808 800 4040, Mon-Fri 9-5.

All the best to you and your dad.

Take care,

Naomi

Thank you for replying. Apart from immunotherapy are there other drugs like targeted cancer medications ? 

Hello and thanks for getting back in touch

Treatment options are best discussed with your dad's team to get a full understanding of what they are thinking is best in an individuals circumstances.

Pembrolizumab is a monoclonal antibody classed as immunotherapy which is a type of targeted treatment. Targeted treatments work by targeting the differences on cancer cells that help them grow or divide. You can read more about these here. There may be the option of other targeted drugs for your dad but some of these may only available be available through a clinical trial.

We have a trials database here on our website that lists all the trials we are aware of and have been given permission to put on our website and you can search under cancer type and trial type such as treatment.

Every trial has a summary to explain what the trial is about and what it is hoping to find out and a list of eligibility criteria that must be met in order to join a trial.

All referrals for a trial need to be made by the doctor to the team running the trial and the nearest participating centre.

It is important to say it isn't always possible to find a suitable trial and patients won't always benefit from taking part in a trial either which is why treatment decisions or trials are best discussed with the patients specialist team.

I hope this helps

Naomi