One study demonstrated a 100% positive response rate from 42 patients with a specific type of rectal cancer.
A study by the US-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and pharmaceutical company GSK revealed a 100% success rate in treating patients with rectal cancer who participated in the clinical trial.
The study looked at a new medicine called dostarlimab-gxly to treat patients with a specific type of rectal cancer caused by a genetic mutation.
“As a physician, I have seen firsthand the debilitating impact of standard dMMR rectal cancer treatment and am excited about the potential of dostarlimab-gxly in these patients,” said Andrea Cercek, head of colorectal cancer at MSK and principal investigator of the study. , in the statement.
MMRd, in English “mismatch repair deficient”, is a type of cancer in which cells have a dysfunctional DNA repair system. These cases represent around 5% of rectal cancers.
The current treatment for this type of cancer is radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery or a combination of these treatments.
According to Clélia Coutzac, an oncologist who did not participate in the study, treatments often have a strong impact on the patient’s quality of life, especially those who have intestinal disorders, intestinal incontinence or sexual dysfunctions.
How does dostarlimab work?
“Since dMMRs are hypermutated tumors, they are very visible to the immune system, which initially sees the cancer cells as foreign and will kill them. However, as time passes and the cancer progresses, the immune system stops working,” Coutzac explained to Euronews Health.
“What works very well in these tumors is to reactivate the immune system with immunotherapy and, in this case, with GSK’s dostarlimab, a medicine that directs lymphocytes to recognize cancer cells as harmful again and kill them”, added the person in charge.
Patients who followed the treatments for six months showed a complete clinical response, without “any sign of tumor”, detected by magnetic resonance imaging, endoscopy or digital examination during follow-up, according to the GSK statement.
Clélia Coutzac described the results as “astonishing”.
More investigation underway
Despite these “astonishing” results, more research is needed before dostarlimab reaches the market.
A global study called Azur-1 is designed to test the effectiveness of dostarlimab-gxly when used alone, rather than chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, and to confirm the MSK results.
2024-06-14 13:19:15