Radiating one tumor can trigger the immune system to wipe out tumors in other parts of the body and may boost the effectiveness of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY)’s cancer drug Yervoy, doctors have shown. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center are reporting on the case of a 41-year-old woman with advanced melanoma who took Yervoy, a drug that stimulates the immune system to fight cancer cells, in a clinical trial. She didn’t respond to the medicine until she got a radiation treatment to shrink a tumor on her lung that was pressing on a nerve and causing severe back pain.
