An experimental drug has shown great promise for cancer sufferers after a successful cure was found in patients.
Doctors were left stunned after all patients in a trial were cured of rectal cancer thanks to the drug.
The discovery offers fresh hope after its success and may be used as a cure for other health-related diseases.
The womb cancer drug known as dostarlimab has proved its effectiveness against colorectal tumours after it seemingly cured every patient on the clinical trial.
Oncologists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York found that the latest tests of patients showed no evidence of cancer after treatment.
Clinical trial data
The 18 colorectal cancer patients involved in the trial were still in remission with so signs of tumour reformation.
All patients in the trial had cancers that shared a gene mutation preventing cells from repairing damage to DNA.
In every case, the rectal cancer had disappeared after immunotherapy — without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy
The treatment uses immunotherapy, which helps to harness the body’s own immune system as an ally against cancer.
First approved in the United States for use as a cancer treatment in early 2021, dostarlimab is a monoclonal antibody.
Monoclonal antibodies like dostarlimab are laboratory-made antibodies design to fight specific illnesses.
The term became more widely known in the last two years as a variety of monoclonal antibodies came out to treat Covid-19.
Dostarlimab is specifically designed to block a particular protein involved in cancer cells.
Bowel cancer
Dr Luis Diaz, one of the lead researchers of the trial, said: “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer.
“It's really exciting. I think this is a great step forward for patients.”
Colorectal cancer is also known as bowel cancer and affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum.
More than nine out of 10 new cases (94%) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50, and nearly six in ten cases (59%) are diagnosed in people aged 70 or over.
But bowel cancer can affect anyone of any age.
More than 2,600 new cases are diagnosed each year in people under the age of 50.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to get these happy tears and happy emails from the patients in this study who finish treatment and realise, ‘Oh my God, I get to keep all my normal body functions that I feared I might lose to radiation or surgery,’” said Dr Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist working on the trial.
“Immunotherapy has proven successful in treating a subset of patients with colon and rectal cancer that has metastasised, meaning spread to other tissues,” added Dr Luis Diaz, Jr, a co-investigator on the trial.
Dostarlimab costs about $11,000 per 500mg dose in the US. In the UK, it is sold for £5,887 per dose.
However, the NHS has agreed a discount with the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which sponsored the US trial, to treat advanced endometrial cancer.
