Hormone Therapy & Immunotherapy

Checkpoint proteins help your immune system tell the difference between healthy cells and harmful ones. But sometimes, cancer cells use these proteins to avoid detection, allowing them to grow unchecked.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors block this process, helping your immune system recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively.

These treatments are used for certain blood cancers like Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as solid tumors, including:

• Breast cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Cervical cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Head and neck cancer
• Liver cancer
• Lung cancer
• Skin cancer
• Stomach cancer

Side effects vary depending on your health, but common symptoms may include:

• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Skin Rashes

Antibody-drug conjugates are one of the newest forms of immunotherapy used to target and treat metastatic cancer. At Broward Health, our experts are using ADCs to deliver powerful cancer-fighting drugs directly to tumor cells—while limiting damage to healthy tissue.

Think of it like a Trojan horse: monoclonal antibodies are introduced through an IV, then bind to proteins on the surface of cancer cells. Once attached, they deliver a targeted therapy directly into the cell to damage or destroy it.

We currently use ADCs to help treat:

• Breast cancer
• Lymphoma
• Multiple myeloma

As a newer therapy, ADC may not be right for everyone. Talk to your cancer care team to learn if it’s an option for you.

Hormone therapy at Broward Health is used to treat hormone receptor–positive (HR+) breast cancers, often alongside chemotherapy or radiation. It’s not the same as hormone replacement therapy.

HR+ cancers grow in response to estrogen or progesterone. Hormone therapy—also called endocrine therapy—works by blocking your body’s ability to produce these hormones, effectively starving the cancer and slowing or stopping its growth.

We use hormone therapy in several ways:

• Adjuvant therapy to reduce the risk of cancer returning after primary treatment
• Neoadjuvant therapy to shrink tumors before surgery or radiation
• Ongoing treatment to help manage metastatic or recurring HR+ breast cancer