In an astounding outcome, a small clinical trial of an experimental drug treatment for rectal cancer patients results in all fourteen patients seeing their tumors disappear without any adverse effects, the Washington Post reports.
The drug was so effective, doctors told the patients they didn’t need any follow-up chemotherapy or radiation treatment; the drug, called dostarlimab, turned the area where tumors sprung from the organ lining into smooth surfaces six months later.
“I don’t think anyone has seen this before, where every single patient has had the tumor disappear,” said Andrea Cercek, an oncologist with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and lead author of the study. The drug effectively blocks the cancer from creating a protein that turns off the body’s antibody production, allow the cancer to spread.