During US cancer drug trial, Cancer in all patients vanished, first time in history of Medical science



The world may soon be able to get rid of a deadly disease, cancer. For the first time, a drug trial has shown 100% eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US.
The trial has brought hopes that cancer can be removed completely without going through long and painful chemotherapy sessions or surgeries. The drug, dostarlimab, was administered to 18 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Cancer stats across the globe

The results were “astonishing” and have ushered in hope for billions across the globe. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly 10 million people died of cancer in 2020. This shows that nearly one among six deaths are due to cancer.

Breast cancer accounted for most of the new cases (2.26 million) while lung cancer came in a close second (2.21 million), followed by colon and rectum cancer patients (1.93 million) in 2020. If further trials on a larger scale show similar results, we could be heading towards a cancer-free world.

Dr Luis A Diaz Jr from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said he was not aware of any other study, in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr Diaz said.

The Dostarlimab study

The patient almost gave up hope after failing to recover from severe chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Some have undergone “life-changing” surgery, causing bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction. Some of them had to use artificial anal bags.

Not expecting their cancerous tumours to take away life, they agreed to be part of the dostarlimab trial. They even expected their current treatment modes to continue. But to their pleasant surprise, they had withdrawn from the painful chemotherapy and radiation sessions and also told that there would be no need to go under the knife.

Another surprise in store for the patients was the complete absence of significant post-treatment complications, which are usually associated with other forms of cancer treatment. Moreover, there were no signs of recurrence of cancer in the patients until 25 months from the end of the trial, sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline.

Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a co-author of the study Dr Andrea Cercek said: “There were a lot of happy tears.”

How the drugs work

Patients were given dostarlimab every 3 weeks for 6 months. The drug was intended to remove the mask of cancer cells so that the body’s immune system could naturally identify and destroy them.
Such drugs, known as “checkpoint inhibitors,” usually have some side effects in 20% of patients being treated. Almost 60% of patients suffer from serious complications, including weakness. However, no negative reactions were observed in patients who participated in the Dosterlimab trial.

Cost of treatment

If the drug approved for high doses in the future, then it will not be cheap and the trial dose will be $ 11,000 per dose, or close to Rs 8.55 per dose.

Further trials required

Dr Hanna K Sanoff from University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study, said it is not clear if the patients are fully cured, despite the results being “compelling”.

“Very little is known about the duration of time needed to find out whether a complete clinical response to dostarlimab equates to cure,” Sanoff wrote in an editorial accompanying the paper.

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Dr. Kirti Sisodhia

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