For the first time, the effectiveness of a womb cancer drug undergoing clinical trial has left everyone shocked. The drug, Dostarlimab, has seemingly cured every participant in the trial. The small group of people suffering from rectal cancer witnessed that their cancer vanished after the experimental treatment. According to reports, the 18 patients in the small clinical trial took Dostarlimab for around six months and after over 12 months the doctors found that their cancer has disappeared.
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According to experts, Dostarlimab is a drug with laboratory-produced molecules and it acts as substitute antibodies in the human body. Reportedly, all 18 rectal cancer patients were given the same drug and as a result of the treatment, cancer was completely obliterated in every patient. The cancer is undetectable by physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography or PET scans or MRI scans.
Although the sample size of the trial is quite small, it definitely proves that Dostarlimab can be a potential cure for one of the most deadly common cancers. Dr. Luis A. Diaz J. of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said this was “the first time this has happened in the history of cancer”.
According to reports, the patients involved in the clinical trial earlier underwent treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and invasive surgery that could result in bowel, urinary, and even sexual dysfunction. Moreover, the 18 patients went into the trial expecting to have to go through these as the next step. However, to their surprise, no further treatment was needed.
The findings of this trial has shocked experts around the globe and experts have pointed out that complete remission in every single patient is “unheard-of”.
Several experts have hailed the research as a world-first and highlighted that it is more impressive as not all of the patients suffered significant complications from the trial drug. Meanwhile, a co-author of the paper, oncologist Dr. Andrea Cercek, described the moment patients found out they were cancer-free.
During the trial, the patients took Dostarlimab every three weeks for six months. It is noteworthy that they were all in similar stages of their cancer. The cancer was locally advanced in the rectum but had 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 New England Journal of Medicine on Sunday.
The scientists have maintained that the treatment looks promising, However, a larger-scale trial is needed to see if it will work for more patients and if the cancers are truly in remission.