Meet Dr. Mario Sznol
January 19, 2022Meet Dr. Mario Sznol
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Information
Learn about Dr. Mario Sznol and his work in immune therapies for the last 35 years for melanoma and kidney cancer, and how the clinic and the lab work together to offer patients the best investigational therapies available.
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To CiteDCA Citation Guide
- 00:00Amario Snow Lima medical oncologist.
- 00:02I treat Melanoma and renal cell carcinoma.
- 00:05My major interest outside of
- 00:06these two diseases is really the
- 00:08development of immune therapies.
- 00:10I've been working on this probably
- 00:12for the past 35 years and it turns
- 00:14out that Melanoma and kidney cancer,
- 00:16which are the two diseases that are treat,
- 00:19are the most responsive to immune therapies,
- 00:21or at least there was a time when those
- 00:24were the only two diseases that were
- 00:26really responsive to immune therapies.
- 00:28With these new drugs that that.
- 00:31We helped develop.
- 00:32Immunotherapy is now used in
- 00:33almost every kind of cancer,
- 00:35but initially it was Melanoma and
- 00:37kidney cancer and that's why I was
- 00:40drawn to those two diseases and I've
- 00:42stayed with that for my entire career.
- 00:45We're very satisfied that
- 00:46approximately 50% of the patients
- 00:48can be really treated effectively
- 00:50with the medicines that we have now,
- 00:52but the truth is,
- 00:53the other 50% don't do well and can
- 00:56possibly die of their menist attic
- 00:58disease if not treated effectively.
- 01:00Research is really important in finding.
- 01:02A more effective treatments
- 01:04for those other 50%.
- 01:06So our clinical research is really
- 01:08focused around finding new medications
- 01:10that can effectively treat those
- 01:12that don't respond to the group
- 01:14of medications that work now,
- 01:15and we integrate our clinical
- 01:17research with our clinical practice.
- 01:19We feel that for the subset of patients
- 01:21that don't have viable standard of care,
- 01:24alternative options we should be offering
- 01:26them the best available investigational
- 01:27therapies that are out there.
- 01:29We take a very much a team approach
- 01:32to the treatment of our patients
- 01:34and we encourage people to ask
- 01:36questions and we try and spend as
- 01:38much time with them at the beginning.
- 01:42Of each patient journey at the at
- 01:44very first visit to answer all
- 01:46the questions that they have.
- 01:47But the other thing that we try and
- 01:49do is we try and answer the questions
- 01:52that they may not know to ask,
- 01:54so as much as possible we we try and
- 01:56have a very long conversation and I
- 01:59go through all aspects of the disease
- 02:01and Natural History, the treatment,
- 02:03how we monitor for recurrence.
- 02:04A number of visits.
- 02:05I also introduce them to our practice
- 02:07nurses which are in really important
- 02:09part of our practice because those that's
- 02:11the interface between the outside and.
- 02:13And into our clinic.