It is difficult for the average person to understand what parameters might be in play when the words “preliminary research” are used in connection with the battle against cancer.

Unfortunately, on the issue of trying to determine the right time to stop cancer immunotherapy, medical researchers and doctors might be compelled to continue using those two words for a much longer time than they formerly anticipated.

What is forcing the existence of that situation is an inadequate number of cancer patients willing to participate in supervised testing in question. Meanwhile, drug companies aren’t exactly excited about the prospect of supporting and promoting research that might, in the end, undercut their profits.

On the subject of supervised testing to pinpoint a good time to end immunotherapy, an oncologist at the University of Chicago, after three years, has been able to find just 60 of the 260 patients he believes he needs to generate reliable findings, whatever they might be.

Another study involving advanced melanoma patients has attracted just about 35 of the 150 patients being sought.

For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the subject, immunotherapies unleash the immune system on tumors. According to an article in the Dec. 27 Wall Street Journal, it is believed immunotherapies have extended the lives of people with melanoma and lung and bladder cancers.

Thus, they have greatly benefited drugmakers’ bottom line; global sales in 2022 reportedly totaled $44 billion.

Part of the issue surrounding immunotherapy revolves around side effects and unnecessary costs patients are experiencing from being exposed to more of the drugs than they need.

However, the key concern has been — and will continue to be — ensuring that ending immunotherapy does not risk a return of patients’ cancers.

“Some doctors and patients worry about pulling back before exhausting their best chance to beat the disease,” the Dec. 27 Journal article said.

As for side effects, the Journal said “people taking immunotherapies often experience itchy skin and rashes, diarrhea and joint pain. Rare side effects including thyroid problems or pancreatitis can occur well into treatment.

According to the Journal newspaper article referred to earlier, a report in December in the medical journal Cancer Research Communications found that most metastatic colon cancer patients who responded well to their initial treatment did not experience a worsening of their disease nearly two years after discontinuing their immunotherapy drugs.

“All patients probably don’t need a long duration of therapy to have durable benefits,” Dr. Geoffrey Gibney, a melanoma doctor at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, told the Wall Street Journal.

So, the headline over the Dec. 27 article, “Doctors work on when to stop cancer immunotherapy,” might remain up to date possibly for years if the rate of cancer patients’ acceptance response to test opportunities remains at its current rate.

But could part of the problem be that the message about test availability has not been disseminated as aggressively as it could have been, thus many patients remain in the proverbial dark about it?

Those involved in efforts on behalf of testing need to weigh that possibility as part of the “preliminary research” scenario.