FASTER, PLEASE: ‘This is not the end’: Experimental therapy that targets genes gives cancer patients hope. “In August 2014, Joho stumbled into Hopkins for her first infusion of the immunotherapy drug Keytruda. She was in agony from a malignant mass in her midsection, and even with the copious amounts of OxyContin she was swallowing, she needed a new fentanyl patch on her arm every 48 hours. Yet within just days, the excruciating back pain had eased. Then an unfamiliar sensation — hunger — returned. She burst into tears when she realized what it was. As months went by, her tumor shrank and ultimately disappeared. She stopped treatment this past August, free from all signs of disease.”