A small sample size of patients suffering from rectal cancer just experienced a medical miracle. In a trial done at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 18 patients took a drug called dostarlimab for six months. The results were revolutionary for cancer research as all of their tumors had disappeared.
Although the trial consisted of a small group of affected individuals, doctors claim these perfect results to be a first in cancer research.
In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered Dr. Hanna Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, while not directly part of the experiment, spoke about the results of the experiment and the implications for cancer research.
How the Drug treats Cancer
This drug is one of a class of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors. These are immunotherapy medicines that work not by directly attacking the cancer itself, but actually getting a person’s immune system to essentially do the work. These are drugs that have been around in melanoma and other cancers for quite a while, but really have not been part of the routine care of colorectal cancers until fairly recently.
Future of the drug
What I’d really like us to do is get a bigger trial where this drug is used in a much more diverse setting to understand what the real, true response rate is going to be. It’s not going to end up being 100 percent. I hope I bite my tongue on that in the future, but I can’t imagine it will be 100 percent. And so when we see what the true response rate is, that’s when I think we can really do this all the time.
Although Dr. Sanoff predicts the drug to not be 100% successful in future trials, the experiment will improve future cancer treatments and push the boundaries of what is possible in cancer research.
Works Cited
“NPR Cookie Consent And Choices”. Npr.Org, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/1103545361/cancer-drug-experimental-rectal-chemotherapy-surgery-treatment-immunotherapy
