Funding from Caesars Windsor is supporting a clinical trial of an alternative to chemotherapy.
The trial is examining whether two drugs for immunotherapy are as effective for lung cancer patients.
500 patients across Canada will be involved, and at least ten of them will be from Windsor-Essex.
Dr. Swati Kulkarni is the project lead and says with six people enrolled, Windsor is already the number 4 site in Canada.
She told AM800 listeners on the Afternoon news the treatment is not as difficult as chemotherapy for patients to tolerate.
"Helps your immune system recognize the cancer cells as a foreign body and then helps kill the cancer. Fortunately with our experience so far people do not have many side effects."
She says they will assess this therapy in conjunction with chemotherapy.
"We are using immunotheraphy already for lung cancer patients and this trial is looking at whether we do need chemotherapy along with immunotherapy for the first line or not and if we don't need chemotherapy it might replace it and we would start just treating people with immunotherapy."
Dr. Kulkarni says they want to see whether this treatment will extend the lives of patients.
"In that process basically it is not affecting the quality of their life those are the 2 important points we're looking at and hopefully the use of immunotherapy if we don't need chemotherapy and can avoid it is the 2nd thing we're looking at."
The trial is being funded through the Canadian Cancer Society with a donation from Caesars Windsor Cares.
Every ticket sold for a concert at the Colosseum in November means a dollar for the project.