New Delhi: In a limited clinical trial, it was found that every single patient of rectal cancer, who was administered a medicine called Dostarlimab for six months, god rid of the disease. Clinical experts engaged in the trial described the success like a miracle and said it might go a long way in thrashing out cure of other cancer viruses.
According a report published recently in the New York Times, as many as 18 patients had taken the medicine in a small clinical trial conducted by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). All the patients had their tumours vanished at the end.
Experts observed that the malignancy generally goes undetected by physical examination, endoscopy, positron emission tomography or PET scans or MRI scans. The trial demonstrated that Dostarlimab can be a ‘possible’ cure for one of the most lethal tumours.
“This happened for the first time in the history of cancer,” stated Dr Luis A Diaz J of MKSCC in New York. About the medicine, clinical trial experts said Dostarlimab, prepared in a lab, functions as a surrogate for antibodies in the human body.
Reports said that individuals in the clinical experiment were previously treated with chemotherapy, radiation, or/and invasive surgery. These therapeutic interventions had caused bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction. The selected 18 patients are expected to go through these surgeries as the next step in the research. “However, it was surprising for them to know that they did not require more therapy,” said an expert, adding that they were astonished by the trial’s outcomes as total remission in every single patient is “unheard-of”.
Dr Alan P Venook, who is a colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, said that the complete remission in every single patient is “unheard-of”. He hailed the research as “world-first”. Experts praised the study because not all of the participants experienced serious side effects from the medication trial.
The New York Times quoted Oncologist Dr Andrea Cerek as saying, “There were a lot of happy tears, when the patients realized that they were cured of cancer.”
During the trial, the patients took Dostarlimab every three weeks for six months, said an expert engaged in the trail. He said that all the patients had in almost similar stages of cancer, which was locally advanced in the rectum. However the viruses were not spread to other organs.
“At the time of this report, no patients had received chemoradiotherapy or undergone surgery, and no cases of progression or recurrence had been reported during follow-up,’ researchers wrote in the study published in the media.
Cancer researchers, who conducted study on the medicine, said that it appeared to be promising drug to treat rectal cancer, but a larger-scale trial is required to authenticate the treatment.
