Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Pre-surgery immunotherapy completely eliminated advanced colorectal cancers in almost 60% of people in a small trial

Good news! Cancer is  history (soon)!

"A drug called pembrolizumab (Keytruda) completely eliminated advanced colorectal cancers in almost 60% of people in a small trial. The remaining people underwent surgery to remove their tumours. All participants were cancer-free after treatment, compared with around 5% of people given standard treatment with chemotherapy and surgery. “If you melt the cancer away before surgery you normally triple survival chances,” says oncologist and study co-author Kai-Keen Shiu. “Patients also don’t need any chemotherapy after, so they avoid all those side effects.” Pembrolizumab encourages the immune system to destroy cancer cells in the small percentage of patients who have a particular genetic makeup."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

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