Pharmaceutical giant Roche has just launched the subcutaneous version of its cancer immunotherapy drug atezolizumab in the Indian market. Fifty-seven year-old smoker Jai Singh (name changed) walked into the cancer clinic of Medanta hospital at Gurugram with a diagnosis of lung cancer last December. It had already spread to his brain, liver and bones. While he had started radiotherapy (this uses X-rays, gamma rays or protons to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours), he was afraid of taking chemotherapy (this uses powerful drugs to destroy cancer cells). That’s when his doctors put him on immunotherapy, which has now become easy to administer with injectables. “He had heard of the side-effects of chemotherapy from other patients. Fortunately, his PD-L1 levels were found to be high at 75 per cent. This means the patient has a high expression of this protein, indicating that three-quarters of the tested cancer cells are actively using it as a cloak to hide from your immune system.…