A Rectal Cancer First: All 12 study patients with advanced stage cancer experienced remission after new treatment

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"Every rectal cancer patient participating in a small study of a new treatment got surprising news: Their cancer vanished—undetectable by physical exam, endoscopy, PET, or MRI scans ...
The patients took GlaxoSmithKline’s Jemperli—a drug known as a checkpoint inhibitor that “unmasks cancer cells,” tipping off the immune system. ...
Also surprising for this type of cancer drug: Participants reported no clinically significant complications. ..."

From the abstract:

"... METHODS

We initiated a prospective phase 2 study in which single-agent dostarlimab, an anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody, was administered every 3 weeks for 6 months in patients with mismatch repair–deficient stage II or III rectal adenocarcinoma. ... Patients who had a clinical complete response after completion of dostarlimab therapy would proceed without chemoradiotherapy and surgery. ...

RESULTS

A total of 12 patients have completed treatment with dostarlimab and have undergone at least 6 months of follow-up. All 12 patients (100%; 95% confidence interval, 74 to 100) had a clinical complete response, with no evidence of tumor on magnetic resonance imaging, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose–positron-emission tomography, endoscopic evaluation, digital rectal examination, or biopsy. 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 (range, 6 to 25 months). No adverse events of grade 3 or higher have been reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Mismatch repair–deficient, locally advanced rectal cancer was highly sensitive to single-agent PD-1 blockade. ..."

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PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch Repair–Deficient, Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (no public access)