An unprecedented bowel cancer study resulted in all patients being rid of the disease thanks to an experimental drug.
The US study used a womb cancer drug known as dostarlimab in a trial with colorectal cancer patients.
Though the study was small, its results saw cancer vanishing in all 18 patients and tears of joy.
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, the Mirror reported.
"This is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer," said Dr Luis Diaz, one of the lead authors of the paper, to The New York Times.
All the patients took dostarlimab, a drug typically used to treat endometrial cancer.
The bowel cancer clinical trial
The 18 colorectal cancer patients involved in the trial were still in remission with no 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 designed 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 breakthrough
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.
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