All 12 patients in the trial had a complete remission of cancer, with no evidence of any tumour in magnetic resonance imaging tests.
All 12 patients in the trial had a complete remission of cancer, with no evidence of any tumour in magnetic resonance imaging tests. (Creative Commons)
Doctors have told South First that they are heartened by the recent results of a drug that cured cancer in all 12 patients in a study but have also called for caution when it comes to progress on the front.
The drug trial showed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in Manhattan in the United States showed complete eradication of cancer in patients, according to scientists.
In the experiment, 12 rectal cancer patients were completely healed of the disease and none had shown the cancer resurgence. The findings were published in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Rectal cancer begins in the rectum and in the last several inches of the large intestine. It is the 10th-most-deadly form of cancer, with 3 lakh deaths every year, which constitutes 3.2 percent of all cancer deaths.
The drug used in the trial is named Dostarlimab. It is a laboratory-produced molecule that acts as substitute antibodies in the human body.
The patients in the trial completed treatment with the drug and underwent at least six months of follow-up.
All 12 patients showed complete remission, with no evidence of tumour in magnetic resonance imaging tests.
The mechanism behind the drug’s action is a type of immunotherapy called “Check Point Inhibition”. It means the drug removes the checks that hinder our immunity cells — T-cells — that fight cancer cells.
In the study, immunotherapy with the programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor, which is Dostarlimab, was followed by non-operative care in patients.
As per Kozhikode-based medical oncologist, Dr Sandeep K, the conclusions of the drug trial are compelling and novel, but it would be too early to jump to a conclusion.
“Moreover, the experiment should be done on a larger sample size. The small sample size was also an insignificant parameter,” he said.
In 2017, a clinical trial showed significant results against colon cancer, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug pembrolizumab, brand name Keytruda, for cancer treatment.
Dr JV Joseph, senior surgical oncologist at Caritas Cancer Institute at Kottayam in Kerala, told South First, “It is a ray of hope in the field of cancer research but intricacies are still to be worked upon. Curing 12 cancer patients was concluded by physical exam, endoscopy, bioscopy, PET scans, and MRI scans whereas scanning and pathological response are awaited.”
He added that the study results need to be “extrapolated in terms of the number of patients so as to make it a clinical practice.”
The drug, he said, has a past of being used against other malignancies. “I hope it evolves as a miracle drug,” added the doctor.
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