Cancer vanishes from patient’s body in drug trial

A small group of people with rectal cancer just experienced something of a miracle as their cancer simply vanished after an experimental treatment. In a very small clinical trial, 18 patients took a drug called Dostarlimab for around six months, and in the end, every one of them saw their tumours disappear.

Dostarlimab is a drug with laboratory-produced molecules that act as substitute antibodies in the human body. All 18 rectal cancer patients were given the same drug and as a result of the treatment, cancer was completely obliterated in every patient - undetectable by physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography or PET scans or MRI scans.

Dr Luis A Diaz J of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said this was “the first time this has happened in the history of cancer”. Immunotherapy harnesses the body’s own immune system as an ally against cancer. The MSK clinical trial was investigating, if immunotherapy alone could beat rectal cancer.

100% remission of rectal cancer

In every case, the rectal cancer disappeared after immunotherapy — without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy — and the cancer has not returned in any of the patients, who have been cancer-free for up to two years. “It’s incredibly rewarding,” says Dr Cercek, “to get these happy tears and happy emails from the patients.

Her co-investigator, MSK medical oncologist Luis Diaz, Jr, is equally thrilled. He’s spent his career studying how to defeat cancer with immunotherapy. Drs Cercek and Diaz explain that their team’s research was sparked by two key ideas.

The first premise, says Dr Diaz, is to figure out precisely which patients benefit most from immunotherapy, so they can receive it right away. “Immunotherapy has proven successful in treating a subset of patients with colon and rectal cancer that has metastasized, meaning spread to other tissues.”