Rectal cancer: researchers hail ‘breakthrough’ experimental treatment

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center in New York said the experimental drug could have far-reaching implications, particularly for young adults. Photograph: AP

Every patient treated for rectal cancer with an experimental immunotherapy drug went into remission, in findings that researchers have hailed as a breakthrough.

All 14 patients who were given the new drug, dostarlimab, were found after six months to have no trace of cancer. Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center in New York could find no sign of the disease through physical examination, endoscopies, MRIs or other scans.