A small-scale study that included only 18 rectal cancer patients found that the experimental use of immunotherapy was 100% effective, resulting in the cancer vanishing from every individual and was no longer detected by physical exam, endoscopy, PET scans, or M.R.I. scans.
Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the author of the paper published on Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The paper described the results, which were sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline. Diaz Jr. said that he knew of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated cancer in every patient.
Complete Remission of Rectal Cancer
In a statement, the medical professional said that the small-scale study is the first time that the results have been observed in the history of cancer. A colorectal specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Alan P. Venook, who was not involved with the study, said that the results were groundbreaking.
He added that a complete remission in every single patient was "unheard-of" and comes after the patients faced grueling treatments. This includes chemotherapy, radiation, and, most likely, life-altering surgery that could result in bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunctions. Some of the individuals are expected to require colostomy bags, as per the New York Times.
The patients entered the study thinking that when it was over, they would have to undergo those procedures because no one really expected their tumors to disappear completely. However, a fortunate surprise was that no further treatment was necessary.
An oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Andrea Cercek, who is a co-author of the study, said that there were a lot of happy tears. The paper was presented on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
According to MSKCC, one of the patients involved in the study and the first one to undergo the treatment, Sascha Roth, said that her latest tests showed no evidence of cancer, after undergoing six months of treatment involving immunotherapy. The process harnesses the body's own immune system as an ally against cancer.
Unprecedented Medical Results
Sascha said that a team of doctors examined her tests and found no signs of cancer, causing Cercek to say that there was no reason to make her endure radiation therapy. The same remarkable results were found in all of the patients without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy.
Cercek said that the results of the study were "incredibly rewarding," noting the myriad of emails that he had received from patients who happily expressed their glee in keeping normal bodily functions.
Roth and the other patients all received the cancer drug Jemperli which made the cancer shrink until it was undetectable and is what doctors called a complete response. Immunotherapy drugs are believed to work against such cancer because all of the changes in DNA make it easier for the immune system to learn to recognize and attack a tumor.
The study's approach is also built on previous work by Diaz Jr. who pioneered the development of Keytruda, to treat patients with mismatch repair deficiency, StatNews reported.
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