Prakat Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 Cancer in all patients vanishes for the first time during US drug trial A small-scale trial of a drug for cancer treatment has shown 100% success in removing the tumours and preventing recurrence in patients. According to experts, this is the first in the history of medical science. Abhishek Chakraborty New Delhi June 8, 2022 UPDATED: June 8, 2022 11:56 IST The drug — dostarlimab — was administered to 18 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. (Representative image) HIGHLIGHTS Tumor vanished in all 18 rectal cancer patients during a drug trial. The trial was conducted for 6 months. The cost of the drug (in trial phase) is approximately Rs 8.55 lakh. The world may soon be able to get rid of a dreaded disease that is feared for the sheer number of lives it claims — cancer. For the first time, a drug trial has shown 100% eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US. The trial, albeit small in scale, has brought hopes that cancer can be removed completely without going through long and painful chemotherapy sessions or surgeries. According to The New York Times, the drug — dostarlimab — was administered to 18 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. ALSO READ | 40 lakh cancer cases, 22.54 lakh deaths reported in India in 3 years: Govt CANCER STATS ACROSS THE GLOBE The results were “astonishing” and have ushered in hope for billions across the globe. According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 10 million people died in 2020. This amounted to cancer being responsible for nearly one in six deaths. Breast cancer accounted for most of the new cases (2.26 million) while lung cancer came in a close second (2.21 million), followed by colon and rectum cancer patients (1.93 million) in 2020. If further trials on a larger scale show similar results, we could be heading towards a cancer-free world. Dr Luis A Diaz Jr from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine said he was not aware of any other study, in which a treatment “completely obliterated a cancer in every patient”. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr Diaz said. Colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr Alan P Venook, who was not a part of the team that conducted the study, also said that this was a first. “A complete remission in every single patient is unheard of,” he said. THE DOSTARLIMAB STUDY The patients had almost given up hopes after failing to recover after going through gruelling chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Some of them even underwent “life-altering” surgeries, resulting in bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction. Some of them even had to use colostomy bags. Not expecting their cancerous tumours to subside, they agreed to be part of the dostarlimab trial. They even expected their current treatment modes to continue. But to their pleasant surprise, they were taken off the painful chemotherapy and radiation sessions and also told that there would be no need to go under the knife. Another surprise in store for the patients was the complete absence of significant post-treatment complications, which are usually associated with other forms of cancer treatment. Moreover, there were no signs of recurrence of cancer in the patients until 25 months from the end of the trial, sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline. Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a co-author of the study Dr Andrea Cercek said: “There were a lot of happy tears.” HOW THE DRUG WORKS The patients were administered dostarlimab every three weeks for six months. The medication aimed to unmask cancer cells, allowing the body’s immune system to identify and destroy them naturally. Such drugs, known as ‘checkpoint inhibitors’, usually have some kind of adverse reaction in 20% of patients who undergo the treatments. Nearly 60% of patients have severe complications, including muscle weakness. But no negative reaction was seen in the patients involved in the dostarlimab study. Rectal cancer in the patients was locally advanced — tumors that had spread in the rectum and, in some cases, to the lymph nodes but not to other organs. COST OF TREATMENT The drug, if approved for mass use in future, is not going to come cheap as the trial doses cost $11,000 each or nearly Rs 8.55 lakh per dose. ‘FURTHER TRIALS REQUIRED’ Dr Hanna K Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study, said it is not clear if the patients are fully cured, despite the results being “compelling”. “Very little is known about the duration of time needed to find out whether a complete clinical response to dostarlimab equates to cure,” Sanoff wrote in an editorial accompanying the paper. (With inputs from The New York Times) source: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/us-cancer-drug-cure-dostarlimab-trial-successful-treatment-1959687-2022-06-08 PD-1 inhibitor similar to pembrolizumab. Definitely promising esp in combination with a platin according to studies. Under_Score 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijy Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 19 minutes ago, Prakat said: Cancer in all patients vanishes for the first time during US drug trial A small-scale trial of a drug for cancer treatment has shown 100% success in removing the tumours and preventing recurrence in patients. According to experts, this is the first in the history of medical science. Abhishek Chakraborty New Delhi June 8, 2022 UPDATED: June 8, 2022 11:56 IST The drug — dostarlimab — was administered to 18 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. (Representative image) HIGHLIGHTS Tumor vanished in all 18 rectal cancer patients during a drug trial. The trial was conducted for 6 months. The cost of the drug (in trial phase) is approximately Rs 8.55 lakh. The world may soon be able to get rid of a dreaded disease that is feared for the sheer number of lives it claims — cancer. For the first time, a drug trial has shown 100% eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US. The trial, albeit small in scale, has brought hopes that cancer can be removed completely without going through long and painful chemotherapy sessions or surgeries. According to The New York Times, the drug — dostarlimab — was administered to 18 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. ALSO READ | 40 lakh cancer cases, 22.54 lakh deaths reported in India in 3 years: Govt CANCER STATS ACROSS THE GLOBE The results were “astonishing” and have ushered in hope for billions across the globe. According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 10 million people died in 2020. This amounted to cancer being responsible for nearly one in six deaths. Breast cancer accounted for most of the new cases (2.26 million) while lung cancer came in a close second (2.21 million), followed by colon and rectum cancer patients (1.93 million) in 2020. If further trials on a larger scale show similar results, we could be heading towards a cancer-free world. Dr Luis A Diaz Jr from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine said he was not aware of any other study, in which a treatment “completely obliterated a cancer in every patient”. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr Diaz said. Colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr Alan P Venook, who was not a part of the team that conducted the study, also said that this was a first. “A complete remission in every single patient is unheard of,” he said. THE DOSTARLIMAB STUDY The patients had almost given up hopes after failing to recover after going through gruelling chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Some of them even underwent “life-altering” surgeries, resulting in bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction. Some of them even had to use colostomy bags. Not expecting their cancerous tumours to subside, they agreed to be part of the dostarlimab trial. They even expected their current treatment modes to continue. But to their pleasant surprise, they were taken off the painful chemotherapy and radiation sessions and also told that there would be no need to go under the knife. Another surprise in store for the patients was the complete absence of significant post-treatment complications, which are usually associated with other forms of cancer treatment. Moreover, there were no signs of recurrence of cancer in the patients until 25 months from the end of the trial, sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline. Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a co-author of the study Dr Andrea Cercek said: “There were a lot of happy tears.” HOW THE DRUG WORKS The patients were administered dostarlimab every three weeks for six months. The medication aimed to unmask cancer cells, allowing the body’s immune system to identify and destroy them naturally. Such drugs, known as ‘checkpoint inhibitors’, usually have some kind of adverse reaction in 20% of patients who undergo the treatments. Nearly 60% of patients have severe complications, including muscle weakness. But no negative reaction was seen in the patients involved in the dostarlimab study. Rectal cancer in the patients was locally advanced — tumors that had spread in the rectum and, in some cases, to the lymph nodes but not to other organs. COST OF TREATMENT The drug, if approved for mass use in future, is not going to come cheap as the trial doses cost $11,000 each or nearly Rs 8.55 lakh per dose. ‘FURTHER TRIALS REQUIRED’ Dr Hanna K Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study, said it is not clear if the patients are fully cured, despite the results being “compelling”. “Very little is known about the duration of time needed to find out whether a complete clinical response to dostarlimab equates to cure,” Sanoff wrote in an editorial accompanying the paper. (With inputs from The New York Times) source: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/us-cancer-drug-cure-dostarlimab-trial-successful-treatment-1959687-2022-06-08 PD-1 inhibitor similar to pembrolizumab. Definitely promising esp in combination with a platin according to studies. the sample size is small, replicability of results is not established, only one type of (rectal) cancer was treated, and so on - there are notable caveats. even so, as someone working in the biological sciences, this appears to be a promising result Prakat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarke Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 Cancer is a non-issue. Blasphemy & temple politics are much more important. Lord 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted June 9, 2022 Share Posted June 9, 2022 Any study/trial n pancreatic cancer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prakat Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 may be forthcoming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijy Posted June 9, 2022 Share Posted June 9, 2022 1 hour ago, coffee_rules said: Any study/trial n pancreatic cancer? from the New Eng J. Medicine (the original paper), it appears as though the treatment was tailored toward rectal cancer specifically (at least for now) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prakat Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 Under_Score 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechEng Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 Won't jump to conclusions here, there can be caveats or side effects which will be realized sooner or later. Vijy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijy Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, MechEng said: Won't jump to conclusions here, there can be caveats or side effects which will be realized sooner or later. yes, monitoring period was one of the caveats I didn't list earlier. not a sufficient timescale (yet) Edited June 11, 2022 by Vijy MechEng 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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