Remarkable Drug Trial Ends With All 18 Patients Cancer-Free

upstart writes:

All patients treated with the drug are in remission, a result that seems unprecedented in cancer research:

A cancer treatment has shown astounding results in a small clinical trial. All of the treated patients, who had a specific form of mid-stage rectal cancer, have since experienced complete remission. Though the findings are based on a sample size of just 18 people, they could hold important implications for treating these particular cancers.

The trial enrolled volunteers diagnosed with stage II or III rectal cancer, meaning their tumors had begun to grow larger and spread to nearby parts of the body. Their cancer was also determined to be caused by a particular mechanism known as a deficiency in mismatch repair.

The researchers theorized that their treatment, a lab-made antibody called dostarlimab, might be able to help this subset of patients. It works by inhibiting a protein known as programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) found in many cancer cells. This inhibition then allows the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as harmful and target them for destruction. [...]

That said, the findings are still very early, and it will take much more research with larger-sized studies to confirm the drug's effectiveness, especially over the long term. [...] And the drug doesn't come cheap, costing $11,000 per dose out of pocket.

At $11,000/pill, from some halfway house in an undisclosed location, Pharma Bro smiles with approval.

Journal Reference:
Andrea Cercek et al., PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch Repair-Deficient, Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, NEJM, 2022. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2201445

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