New cancer treatments leave every patient in remission

A new study on cancer has achieved something that has never been done before. It left every participant cancer-free.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted by researchers from Yale University and Memorial Sloan Kettering who studied patients with advanced stages of rectal cancer. It was a small study consisting of 18 participants and all ended in remission.

All of the patients had a specific type of cancer caused by a lack of mismatch repair, which the National Cancer Institute (NIH) says are cells that have mutations in genes involved in correcting errors when DNA enters a cell is copied.

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Researchers developed a specific treatment for this condition and created a lab-made antibody called dostarlimab, an immunotherapy drug used to treat endometrial cancer. However, according to Science Alert, this was the first clinical investigation into whether it is also effective against colon cancer tumors.

Patients received one dose of the drug every three weeks for six months. And according to Memorial Sloan Kettering: “In every case, after immunotherapy, the rectal cancer disappeared — without the need for standard treatments such as radiation, surgery or chemotherapy — and the cancer has not returned in any of the patients who had cancer — free of charge for up to two Years.”

“I believe this is the first time in the history of cancer,” said lead author Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of the New York Times.

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While the study was small and in its early stages, the results are unprecedented. While the study was narrowed down to a specific type of cancer, it could extend to other types. More research could lead to new treatments and help people recover from cancer while receiving treatments that are less invasive and less debilitating.