Cancer Remission Through Immunotherapy: Promising New Clinical Trial
A recent clinical trial led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) may have cracked the code on curing cancer. Researchers studied some rectal cancer patients and found that an experimental immunotherapy treatment was so effective that every single patient who took a drug called Dostarlimab for six months had their cancer treated.
Dr. Hanna Sanoff’s appearance on NPR’s All Things Considered sparked the idea for this blog post. Dr. Hanna Sanoff explained how the Dostarlimab drug works and what it might mean for future cancer research. This interview has been lightly edited.
What is immunotherapy?
Cancer immunotherapy is a treatment that uses a patient’s immune system to fight cancer cells. Doctors use immunotherapies to improve a patient’s response to chemotherapy and treat tumors that no longer respond to other treatments. These treatments take many forms, but they all work by awakening or turning on our immune system so it can fight cancer cells.
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What is the Deal with this Experimental Treatment?
The trial group comprised only 12 people, and there is still much to learn about how the treatment works. Researchers, however, say this is an unprecedented result in cancer research and are optimistic about it.
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How does the drug work?
The drug belongs to a class of medications called immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Immunotherapy medicines use the body’s immune system to fight cancer rather than directly attacking it. It has been quite a while since drugs like these have been available in melanoma and other cancers, but researchers have recently used them in colorectal cancer. Most of the patients tested had no severe adverse effects.
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What Happens Next?
Research needs to be replicated in a much larger study, as the previous research focused only on a small group of patients with rare genetic signatures in their tumors. However, they say that seeing 100% of patients test positive for remission is a very promising early indicator.
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Where Do I get the drug too?
Since clinical trials are still ongoing, individuals cannot use the drug until the Food and Drug Administration approves the New Drug Application request so that doctors can prescribe it.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may approve the drug if the evidence shows it is effective and safe for use. There are no safe or side-effect-free drugs, but medicine will be approved if there are more benefits than risks.
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