It was discovered that a medicine used in cancer therapy was 100 per cent effective in eliminating tumours and keeping them from returning in one small-scale experiment. This is the first time in medical history that this has happened, say the specialists.
Cancer is a terrible illness feared for the number of lives it takes, yet it may soon be eradicated. Patients at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, US, were the subjects of a therapeutic study that demonstrated complete cancer eradication for the first time.
A small-scale clinical experiment has raised expectations that cancer may be eliminated without the need for extensive and painful chemotherapy or surgery. Dostarlimab was supplied to 12 individuals with rectal cancer, who seemed to have healed entirely, according to the New York Times, since the illness could not be identified by physical examination, endoscopy, PET, or MRI scans.
CANCER STATS ACROSS THE GLOBE
Billions of people worldwide now have reason to be hopeful after these “astonishing” findings. About 10 million people will die in 2020, according to the WHO. Nearly one in six fatalities were attributed to cancer.
Lung cancer came in second with 2.21 million new cases, followed by a colon and rectal cancer (1.93 million) and breast cancer (2.26 million). If larger-scale studies confirm these promising findings, we may be one step closer to a cancer-free planet.
According to Dr Luis A Diaz Jr from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, there has never been a trial in which a therapy “totally eradicated” a malignancy “in every patient” according to Dr Luis A Diaz Jr from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Cancer researcher Dr Diaz believes this is a first-of-its-kind event.
According to a colorectal cancer expert at UCSF, Dr Alan P Venook, who was not part of the team that did the study, has never been researching like this before. According to him, achieving complete remission in every case was “unthinkable.”
THE DOSTARLIMAB STUDY
When the patients failed to make a full recovery after gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, they were close to giving up hope. Some of them had “life-altering” procedures, which resulted in the bowel, urinary, and sexual problems, among other complications. Some were even forced to wear colostomy bags.
They consented to participate in the dostarlimab experiment even though they didn’t think their malignant tumours would shrink. They even anticipated that their existing treatment plans would be maintained indefinitely. To their delight, they were spared the torturous chemotherapy and radiation treatments and the looming prospect of undergoing surgery.
In addition, patients were pleasantly surprised to discover that they had none of the typical post-treatment difficulties associated with other types of cancer therapy. After 25 months of follow-up from the completion of the experiment, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, there were no symptoms of recurrence in any of the participants.
There were “a lot of joyful tears,” according to Dr Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and research co-author.
HOW THE DRUG WORKS
For six months, dostarlimab was given to the patients three times each month. The drug’s goal was to reveal cancer cells so that the immune system could recognise and eliminate them independently.
Some 20% of people who get checkpoint inhibitors, as they’re called, have some form of side effect. Muscle weakness is a common consequence in 60 per cent of individuals. However, no adverse reactions were seen in the dostarlimab trial participants.
Tumors in the rectum and lymph nodes had spread to the individuals with rectal cancer, but no other organs had been affected.
COST OF TREATMENT
The trial doses of the medicine, which cost $11,000 apiece or almost Rs 8.55 lakh per dosage, would not be inexpensive if the treatment is authorised for broad usage in the future.
