Drug Trial Shows Promising Results In The Battle Against Cancer

To this day, the search for an amicable treatment against cancer has yet to surface. There have been studies coming out and some of them include resorting to drugs that could spare people from the rigors and threats of undergoing cancer treatment.

The latest is a study using a drug called dostarlimab. The said drug was administered to patients in a study every three weeks for six months.

The participants who took part in the study were suffering from rectal cancer. All tried other measures such as chemotherapy, or difficult surgery that could lead to possible bowel or urinary dysfunction.

Also, some patients were required to use a colostomy bag due to treatment according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

18 rectal cancer patients participated in the study done at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. It reportedly had a 100% success rate.

When the drug trial concluded, patients were reportedly spared from the agony of known but damaging treatment. Patients underwent MRI, rectal examination and biopsy. There were no signs of a tumor after the procedures.

“There were a lot of happy tears,” Dr. Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, stated.

Aside from those results, there were also no signs of the recurrence of cancer when the patients did follow-up appointments from six to 25 months after the trial concluded.

“Very little is known about the duration of time needed to find out whether a clinical complete response to dostarlimab equates to cure,” Dr. Hanna K. Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center said.

Despite the promising results, there are factors to consider. Dr. Kimmi Ng, a colorectal cancer expert, pointed out that the study was small and stressed that the results would need to be replicated.